[MUD-Dev] Text Parsing

[Chris Gray]

[Ben Greear:]

> Since
> when entering a command to the server, all you really want to do is convey
> an action, what does grammar, or any other rule imposed from our outside
> communications, really add to the interface?

Familiarity, and thus a less steep learning curve. The world today wants
quick gratification! See Raph's newbie log.

> How do you know all the keywords for a given object (how do you know,
> as the programmer, which is rusty?)  When you start depending too heavily
> on correctly built worlds/objects, you are liable to get into situations
> where an innocent mistake in building makes it almost impossible to interact
> with an entity.

The system isn't hard-coded with them. For example, if there is a rusty
sword in the system, it would have the name string "sword;rusty". If the
user typed "get rusty sword from bag", the builder-provided verb function
for "getFrom" would be called with: ("sword;rusty", "bag"), and would
use the system's built-in functions to look for matches in the
environment. The words "sword" and "rusty" do not need to be in any
grammar tables anywhere. Typically, I only have verbs and prepositions
in the grammar tables.

--
Don't design inefficiency in - it'll happen in the implementation.

Chris Gray     cg at ami-cg.GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA
               http://www.GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA/cg/


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