[MUD-Dev] Semi Graphical Muds

[Christopher Allen]

BTW, my problem with MCP is that it combines too many things into one layer,
in particular, I'd like to see a separation between transport, services, and
display.

We had spec'ed a transport layer called Ellis, which was designed by Felix
Crowes (author of DGD) and Par Winzell (of Skotos). It created a secured,
authenticated, encrypted connection, onto which a host of private channels
are automatically multiplexed in UDP and TCP. On top of it would be an
action protocol, providing XML support, XML tag compression/aliasing, a
naming scheme for channels and a subscription/registration service for
client/server module pairs. On top of that would be a client specific scheme
for displaying information into that particular client.

One of the things that slowed development of it is that at Skotos we've had
to add another requirement based on problems that our customers have brought
up -- firewall compatibility. Thus under TCP we need to redesign Ellis so
that it can fake-out HTTP on port 80 to a state-aware firewall box. We have
heard from a third-party that it has been done for a telnet style
chat-client, so we should be able to as well.

We don't intend that Ellis (or whatever it is renamed when it becomes http
friendly) to be proprietary, so we'll be glad to share it with anyone that
wants to use it. I think that Felix wants to build it into the base DGD, so
there will be a non-commercial version of it available.

-- Christopher Allen

------------------------------------------------------------------------
.. Christopher Allen                                 Skotos Tech Inc. ..
..                           1512 Walnut St., Berkeley, CA 94709-1513 ..
.. <http://www.Skotos.net>               o510/647-2760  f510/647-2761 ..

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