[MUD-Dev] Languages (slightly offtopic, was Text Parsing)

[Matthew Mihaly]

On Wed, 2 Jun 1999, Koster, Raph wrote:

> This whole thread begs the question of whether English-language commands are
> the way to go at all. :) Granted, I am biased as I am currently working in a
> graphical environment. Then again, it's interesting to see what elements are
> made text commands and what elements are made graphical interfaces in the
> various graphical projects too.
> 
> Is it desirable, even in text environments, to have the command interface be
> words?

I will give a qualified 'yes'. Our game could not exist without a command
interface. There are thousands of commands, and they must be executed in
quick succession. During combat, anyone who hopes to have any chance uses
an elaborate system of macros to string together various commands (or just
to speed up the time it takes to type a command like FLING TOWER AT
BUBBA). I have yet to see a graphical game that comes anywhere near to our
game in terms of complexity, and I'd be a bit stumped as to how to give a
user the option to execute all those commands himself without a command
line interface (note also that for flexibility, it's necessary to have the
option to type the command OR make a macro with zmud or our internal
system).
--matt




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