[MUD-Dev] Semi Graphical Muds

[Bruce]

Hi Ben,

Ben Chambers wrote:

> Why not implement it as the next generation of MUD standards.  Make it
> so ALL servers sent out that data, and ALL clients recieve that type
> of data you could have many different flags.  you coul even advance it
> to the point where clients send tagged to.  for instance arrow keys,
> or text input.  that way they could move with only the arrow keys.

There are some problems here.  For one, what's next generation about 
this type of thing?  JHCore-based MOOs combined with TkMOO already do 
this type of thing using MCP/2.1 -and- they've solved some of the 
bootstrapping problems.  (MCP info can be found at 
http://www.moo.mud.org/mcp/ )

The real issue is in how to bootstrap this.  If you try to require it, 
then you'll run into the fact that the client support isn't there.  Will 
you be able to get zMud and the others to support your protocol?  If you 
get clients to support it, will you get most servers to support it?

Will that change be something that can be incremental, or will it be a 
forced migration?

MCP/2.1 handles this very nicely.  MCP/2.1 provides a way for both the 
client and the server to indicate to each other that they speak MCP and 
the range of versions which they support.  Once that has been done, they 
also communicate which packages (and which versions of those packages) 
they support.

Also, MCP messages are in a format that is easy for a client to ignore, 
so you can transmit the usual textual information (or not), and augment 
it with inline, but out-of-band MCP messages, which the client (or 
server) may process.

> When you log on, the server could also send you a list of symbols,
> that the client would save if you ever needed to reference that stuff.
> I'm thinking that I will try and implement this first as an enhanced
> form of an open source codebase/client.  then write my own codebase
> and let other people write their own clients.  I see this as the next
> step in MUD evolution.  It is better than graphical, because it still
> requires imaginition.

I'll ignore the last 2 sentences which Matt Mihaly has already responded 
to adequately.  Please look at MCP and some of the other prior art.  It 
is well suited to the problem domain that you're discussing here.  It 
already has some solid support in JHCore and TkMOO.  There are existing 
packages and specifications for some basic things.

Why didn't MCP take off outside of the MOO community that spawned it? 
I'm not sure, but I haven't seen any comparable efforts from others 
though that were as well specified or approached the same level of 
support and experimentation that MCP has.

In short, my point is: Why not take MCP/2.1 and work it into some other 
existing codebases or clients?  It'd be great to have tinyfugue support 
for it, or for some of the other common text-based clients, or for some 
of the common servers, like Smaug, or some of the LPC mudlibs.

(And some other interesting things have been built on top of MCP, like 
the TWin client: http://weblab.research.att.com/tchat/ )

  - Bruce

_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev