[MUD-Dev] Text Parsing

[Greg Miller]

"Travis S. Casey" wrote:
> I think that trying to make a full natural language parser is a bit much,
> but I'd personally prefer to be able to type:
> 
>   get red sword and blue sword
>   n
> 
> or, if the red and blue swords are the only swords in the room:
> 
>   get all swords
>   n
> 

I prefer "get red and blue swords" and "get swords" for these cases.
They're plain english, less typing that anything suggested so far, and
they're likely among the first things new players will try.

> Personally, I'm interested in parsing not to make the command language be
> English, but to make it easier and more flexible to use.  That's one
> reason that I decided to make my own parser under MudOS instead of using
> the MudOS one -- the Lima people had too much of an emphasis on requiring
> commands to be grammatically correct for my taste.

Have you looked at the DiscWorld mudlib? I've found it saves me quite a
bit of typing, simply by interpreting short english sentences to mean
what they do in english rather than requiring odd constructs like "all
swords" or "all.sword"

> (On most LP muds, "get sword 2" is how you'd get the second sword listed
> in the room.  On Lima, it was "get second sword".  I recall someone asking
> if understanding of the "get sword 2" syntax could be added, and Beek
> replying that he could, but he wouldn't, since "get sword 2" was not
> English.  That's the kind of thing that I think is excessive.)

Maybe they were roleplayers gone overboard? I've seen the occasional
complaint that traditional mud commands interfere with roleplaying (then
again, I've also seen arguments over whether the mud should simulate
incorrect spelling for npcs to match players, or simple run spell- and
grammar-checking on player speech in order to improve "role-playing". Go
figure.)

> Aliasing more than just verbs was planned (so you could do things like
> alias "sw -> sword" and type "get sw"), but never implemented.  This would
> have allowed players to define their own abbreviations, and/or to alias
> anything they commonly misspelled.

These are often called nicknames or "nicks". It's very useful in many
combat systems and for stealing and certain other tasks. I use it (when
available) to make my aliases use the correct pack/bag/etc.

> (I know -- a good client will do all of this.  It's always been my
> feeling, though, that players who can use mud-specific clients shouldn't
> have any advantages over those who, for whatever reason, can't.  Thus, I
> wanted to support client-like features on the mud itself.)

Early EmlenMUD did a great job of this, right up until Orin (Owen Emlen)
screwed up the windowed display mode for ansi users.
--
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President Clinton was acquitted; then again, so was O. J. Simpson.
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