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1160: Re: [MUD-Dev] Re: MUD languages
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From: clawrenc@cup.hp.com
Newsgroups: nu.kanga.list.mud-dev
Date: Sun, 27 Apr 97 16:12:01 -0700
References: [1]
Organization: Kanga.Nu
In <9704261730.7yk1@ami-cg.GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA>, on 04/26/97
at 05:39 PM, cg@ami-cg.graysage.edmonton.ab.ca (Chris Gray) said:
>It seems that everyone with big ambitions (most of us?) wants to have
>a programming language within the MUD. Makes sense to me. Lots of
>discussions in the newsgroups have talked about using some standard
>pre-existing language (Perl, Tcl, etc.), but I don't know of anyone
>who has actually done that.
The only one I know of that did was PerlMUD, for pretty obvious
reasons.
>Anyone know of a MUD that does? Is there
>some real reason why not, or is it just a case of NIH (Not Invented
>Here) syndrome?
The real problem I see is that the language ends up so closely bound
to your server design that you might as well go with your own
creation. It gets to be a fight to leave the language "pure" and not
do the Microsoft deal and add your own little tweaks to it.
This all to the side: I'd love to see it done, and done well. I
don't know if I will, mostly because all the standardised languages
I've seen are far more complex for the end users than I want mine to
be.
Conversely, I have a feeling that that complexity is unavoidable in
practice (users end up doing nasty things with your code and relying
on side-effects that you hoped they'd not notice), and so attempting
to smooth the learning curve with a simpler language is a lot cause.
Its here where I start to think that what I really need are two
languages: an internal programming language that the world is written
in, which is also accessable to users, and an ultra-simplistic
language, much on the order of DOS batch files for users to do dumb
little things with.
--
J C Lawrence Internet: claw@null.net
(Contractor) Internet: coder@ibm.net
---------------(*) Internet: clawrenc@cup.hp.com
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