[MUD-Dev] Virtual machine design

[Jon A. Lambert]

On 20 Apr 99,, Koster, Raph wrote:
> > From: Jon A. Lambert [mailto:jlsysinc at ix.netcom.com]
> > 
> > "ToonTalk - An Animated Programming Environment for Children"   
> >  Ken Kahn   
> >  see <URL: http://www.toontalk.com/English/papers.htm>   
> 
> Dr Amy Bruckman's students at Georgia Tech were investigating doing MUD
> programming in this manner, and Ken Kahn came out there to talk to them
> about it. To be more precise, I think they were talking about it in the
> context of MOO softcode. She was telling me all about it at GDC, but that's
> all the detail I remember. She said it was a real eye-opener for her
> students. :)
> 

BTW, you can get a trial or beta of it at the above site.  There's also an 
article explaining how Toontalk's concurrency model works, which may also be 
of interest.  Also Civilization III is out and has some really creative new 
interfaces.  Civ-I and II players will probably hate them, but the interface 
design is interesting and well-worth a peek.  

I've been looking at ways to implement an iconicized language on top of my 
existing model in order to make a user-friendly building/programming language.
The hard thing is getting out of this "programmer" mind-set.  I'll admit I had 
some major difficulties with Toontalk, because I was thinking about what was 
going on under the covers, rather than accepting the veneer as a 4-year old 
might.  Kahn mentions a few metaphors in his papers that are spot-on for muds. 
Well identified fantasy/sci-fi objects and everything that goes along with the 
city/house/room metaphors are useful.  


--
--*     Jon A. Lambert - TychoMUD       Email:jlsysinc at .ix.netcom.com      *--
--*     Mud Server Developer's Page <http://pw1.netcom.com/~jlsysinc>      *--
--* I am the Dragon of Grindly Grund, but my lunches aren't very much fun, *--
--* For I like my damsels medium rare, And they always come out well done. *--


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