[MUD-Dev] Naming and Directories?

[Chris Gray]

[Mark Gritter:]

 >Do you allow aliasing?  Could I set up a private directory which contained
 >name->object mappings for objects which I did not "own", or is the mapping
 >more strictly scope-like?

In wizard-mode (typing directly at the programming system), you can
enter any symbol you like into any table you have access to. So, if you
want a symbol for your current location, something like

    DefineThing(myRoomTable, Here());

would work. Similarly, you can give symbols to objects by, for example,
identifying the object as the 3rd thing in the list of things you are
carrying. Note that this doesn't let you use those names in the normal
non-programming command system. I'd have to think about whether that
would work properly or not. "Builders" have access to the building
commands, and there is, e.g. "@symbolhere" which allows them to assign
a symbol to the room they are in, so long as they own the room. That is
useful with other builder commands like "@poofto".

 >It sounds like even this more limited ability was useful, though.  It doesn't
 >seem possible in your system to "lose" an object or have anonymous objects---
 >which I think are useful properties to have for debugging.

Actually, I often have anonymous objects and rooms. This often happens
when someone uses the on-line building facilities to build rooms, since
the operations are performed on the room the character is in, so no
symbol for it is needed. Most objects that players use are clones from
generic objects, and even if the generics have a symbol, the clones
won't, unless the player gives them one. The presence of clones like this
is one thing that makes me wonder how a system *could* have a table of
all objects, unless artificial names were generated.

--
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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