[MUD-Dev] Source Code Release

[Ben Greear]

Ben Greear (greear at cyberhighway.net)  http://www.primenet.com/~greear 
Author of ScryMUD:  mud.primenet.com 4444
http://www.primenet.com/~greear/ScryMUD/scry.html

On Wed, 11 Feb 1998, Greg Munt wrote:

> [Snip background and advert for ScryMUD]
>  
> > Feel free to download the source for both the client and server, though
> > please read the License once you do.  My release process is probably the
> > weakest part, as I just started it, so comments and questions are welcome.
> 
> This is something I've wanted to post on, for a number of weeks. My own 

> 
> I am wary of what will happen to my code - what it will be used to create 
> - once I have made it available to the general public.
> 
> Advantages:
> 
>   The potential of really widespread beta testing
> 
>   The potential of discussions about various elements of the 
>   specification, design or implementation being produced, which can only 
>   help the project. 
> 
>   Allowing people who can't or won't code, to be able to run something 
>   that they otherwise could not.
> 
>   Potential design suggestions from these non-coders.

Don't forget the ego boost from seeing others use your work!  I do this
for fun, and if others think my product worthy enough to use, I'm 
happy.

> 
> Disadvantages:
> 
>   Code misused. Billions of exact replicas spring up everywhere. "Oh god, 
>   another stock X-MUD..." Bearing in my mind my strong aversion to this 
>   scenario, this is the main cause of my concern, really.

My fix for that is not releaseing more than one zone with the MUD.  There
will be no replicas.  As for code replicas, doesn't really matter, because
users never see the code, they just see the world.

> 
>   Everyone can see how bad my code is. It's not that bad, honest.

Heh, I compile with g++, but now that I'm wiser I see what a functional
hack it really is!  Thems the breaks, at least I can get around in it,
don't know if anyone else will be able to or not...

> 
>   If, by some quirk of fate, it becomes a popular base, my mailbox will 
>   be bombarded with questions from clueless newbie admin. The result is 
>   what I call "Re: George Reese".

If I ever become as disenchanted as he is, please find a way to ban me
from usenet :P


> 
>   If it becomes popular, and is misused, its name (and mine) will have a 
>   bad reputation.

Nope, not in my mind.  Besides, I plan on keeping my own going, so if
other ppl hack their coppies to pieces, I can still show them what it was
meant to be!!

 > 
>   It's not a legal requirement to follow the distribution license. Even 
>   if it was, could I really afford to sue thousands of people (presuming 
>   the code became popular)? And would I want to attract the inevitable 
>   negative publicity to myself and the game, through such legal actions? 
>   (See: TSR)

Well, I my License basically says, if you're making money off of my code,
then you owe me.  I'm expecting no money, so any that trickled in would be
bonus, and if someone tried to screw me...  welll, we'd have to see...

> 
> I'm thinking of not putting a tgz file anywhere, but instead putting the 
> source in HTML files, and annotating it fully. But that still doesn't 
> totally deal with the above.

Source in html files strikes me as useless, no one wants to read the
stuff, and if it's not easily installable and compileable, no one ever
will.  Perhaps I'm misunderstanding....

I think the greates benefit would be ideas and cross-polination, perhaps
just with zones and mob scripts, but probably code-wise also.

Feed it to the bazaar I say!

Ben aka Grock

 > 
> --
> Greg Munt, greg at uni-corn.demon.co.uk   "I'm not bitter - just twisted."
> http://www.uni-corn.demon.co.uk/ubiquity/
> 
> 
> 
>