[MUD-Dev] attracting players

[Jon A. Lambert]

Adam wrote:
> 
> I have a seperation between my help files also.  There are "help" files,
> which are the equivilent of UNIX man pages - basic technical information on
> how to execute a command.  There are also some general purpose help pages
> about skills, stats, money, combat, death, and so forth, but they are
> fairly brief.  All of the help files are written in a meta-format which I
> export to both mud-accessable helpfiles and HTML.
> (http://dusk.org/BloodDusk/help - one of these days I'll beautify them a bit)
> 

I just had a look through these.  They are elegantly simple. :-) 
No need to get too beautiful.  It might be useful to add a simple
.cgi search script mechanism though. 

I'm not all that fond of .man pages.  However I do like the VMS
help system.  The nice feature of VMS help is that all the help is 
chained together in a navigatible modal format, so that you can move
forward and backward and up and down through a heirarchy.  The 
ColdCore help system is quite similar.  Any modal heirarchical 
structure should be exitable with a single keystroke or command. 

You do have some this builtin navigation for free by virtue of 
using web browser with its browse back and forward buttons (keystrokes).

IBM's TSO has a nice command line help system that allows you to
append a context keyword.  For instance:

==>help throw syntax
  would give one a syntax diagram 
==>help throw example
  would give on examples of how to use the command
==>help throw use
  a long description of the command where, when, why etc.
==>help throw
  includes the syntax and brief description ~~ .man page
==>help throw full
  includes everything under the sun

I can't remember all the different categories offhand.

Another interesting help system is IBM's ISPF/PDF.
It's a menu driven help system, that's probably common to
a whole host of old-style console applications regardless
of the platform.

Example:

==>help

---------ISPF/PDF HELP FACILITY ----------
OPTION ==> __

     1 - General commands
     2 - Browse commands
     3 - Edit primary commands
     4 - Edit line commands
     5 - Directory list commands
     6 - Utility information
 
------------------------------------------

It's a nest of modal menus that keeps track of where you are 
within the system.  Information is presented in screens which
does imply some form of screen control.  Although that's not
actually necessary to a menu driven system.  
The basic benifit is that navigation is by keypress rather
than fully typing a word, so it's faster in that respect
and there's never a reason to issue a 'huh?' statement.
Sometimes keywords are highlighted which provides direct
jump access to a help item.  'back', 'end', 'next', 'find' 
and 'exit' commands provide navigation.  Usually these are
mapped to function keys.  

--
--* Jon A. Lambert - TychoMUD        Email:jlsysinc at ix.netcom.com *--
--* Mud Server Developer's Page <http://tychomud.home.netcom.com> *--
--* If I had known it was harmless, I would have killed it myself.*--




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