[MUD-Dev] Java and Javascript

[Jon A. Lambert]

> Matt Chatterly wrote:
> On Mon, 16 Feb 1998, Caliban Tiresias Darklock wrote:
> > At 03:37 PM 2/16/98 +0000, Matt Chatterley wrote:

> > >You might want to run it in
> > >the background, or low-priority rather than in a browser (I think you must
> > >accept that browsers are fairly huge things, now).
> > 
> > Browsers are also absolutely essential to most online activity. I think a
> 
> !!! The last application I ever tend to run is a web-browser. And
> !!! then I
> typically use lynx for a few minutes (partly because I don't have
> enough
> *colours* to run Netscape reasonable due to my video card).
>

I think Caliban is quite correct.  Browsers are absolutely essential 
to most online activity.  Of course that probably wouldn't be true of 
most of the people on this list.  However most of the playerbase, 
current and potential, is not nearly as computer literate.  In spite 
of this horribly deficiency they are often better game players. ;)

> > >The more resources the browser uses, the fewer are available for my client
> > >if I wish to make it do clever and/or attractive things, though.
> > 
> > When I last installed the JDK, I had to manually enter several environment
> > variables and registry keys. It was not something I'd wish on a novice.
> > I've also never had to do that with any piece of software I have ever
> > installed, with the exception of the Gnu Win32 utilities which required a
> > similar setup. (I think it's a UNIX thing. UNIX people seem to have this
> > idea that you should have to prove you're worthy to run their software. So
> > they make you do fifty weird technical things, and if you can manage that
> > then you must know what you're doing.)
> 
> I didn't even have to do this with my Linux installation. Unpack,
> make a few symlinks, party.

I would bet that more than half of current mud players couldn't make 
a symlink if their life depended upon it, let alone a registry 
change.  Installation of a client should be totally automated.
 
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