[MUD-Dev] Client Technology

[Ben Greear]

Andrew Wilson wrote:
> 
> Jon Morrow:
> > Currently, I am deciding which programming language would support a GUI
> > based client most effectively.  Portability is obviously a consideration,
> > while so is development time.  For these reasons, I am pondering the
> > potential of Java.  Massive calculations will not need to be made, but I am
> > a little concerned about what I have seen in its speed with graphical
> > components.  Low-interaction video and audio must be supported, along with
> > the regular graphical controls like text boxes.

I'm not sure about graphics & sound, but Java is good enough, even on relatively
low end machines, for a decent text display.  If you are using Applets, playing
sounds are not that hard, and are played by your browser, so should be relatively
efficient, I'd think.  I'd be very scared of trying to get Video to work, but
you might could drive it externally with a native plugin or something...

You can see a java client that I wrote at:  
http://scry.wanfear.com/
(click on the: Hegemon Client for ScryMUD  link)

(And I'm sure it could be done better, so don't blame Java if
 you think it's lame!! :))

> [in my opinion] Of the two languages, Java is probably your best
> bet.  More people know Java.  It's got nice syntax for building
> complex stuff and it's harder to make really stupid mistakes.  The
> available Java widget sets are up to building a conventional chat
> client (if conventional Java chat clients are anything to go by)
> although you may need to tweak the Text widgets a lot to get the
> best out of them.

I definately had to tweak the Text widget (I wanted colors, and it
had to be able to scroll forever.)  Other than that, the tookit was
more than adequate, and that was only the 1.1.X AWT.  One thing to
remember, if you're doing Applets, you probably won't be able to
effectively use Swing, so you're stuck with AWT, at least untill
browsers catch up in another year or so (or make your customers
download a Java Plugin from Sun...)


--
Ben Greear (greearb at candelatech.com)  http://www.candelatech.com
Author of ScryMUD:  scry.wanfear.com 4444        (Released under GPL)
http://scry.wanfear.com               http://scry.wanfear.com/~greear



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