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

[Mark Gritter]

Jon A. Lambert writes:
> 
> I wonder how successful other popular net-games like chess, checkers, 
> hearts, backgammon, etc. would be if the implementors chose NOT to design 
> a user-interface?
> 

Actually, I seem to recall playing on the Internet Chess Server via telnet.  
:)  Of course, even at that time it wasn't the only interface option.

I agree with the point you're trying to make--- to a certain degree.  
Telnet has some big advantages, though:

"Everybody" has it.  Even Windows comes with MS's (brain-dead) telnet 
application installed.  No lengthy download, just start playing
immediately.

"Everybody" can use it.  This is a real issue for users of Linux, such as 
myself, when games like Tradewars or Ultima Online support only Windows-
based clients.  Java, WINE, and VMware make this less of an issue in
various ways, though (and, to be fair, there's an unsupported Linux client 
for Ultima Online.)

"Everybody" understands it.  Not only is telnet relatively intuitive to 
anybody who's used a command-line interface, the simplicity of the 
protocol makes it feasible to write custom clients, proxies, and 'bots.
Now, you may take a dim view of the above... but consider whether the average
firewall (or NAT box) configuration is more likely to let telnet through
(especially to port 23) or your own custom packets?  As a side benefit,
clients for one MUD are likely to be usable for a different one.

While one certainly can't _avoid_ designing a user interface (at the very
least by "default"), I think there's something to be said for leaving the
client end alone as much as possible...

Mark Gritter
mgritter at cs.stanford.edu


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