nu.kanga.list.mud-dev

7669: [MUD-Dev] Re: (fwd) Re: command parsers: a modest proposa

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     Subject:  [MUD-Dev] Re: (fwd) Re: command parsers: a modest proposa...
     Author:   mud-dev@kanga.nu (Richard Bartle
     <76703.3042@compuserve.com>)
     Date:          7/8/98 3:13 PM

>Chris Gray <cg@ami-cg.GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA> wrote:
>>What are the choices here:
>>   - drop all of them
>>   - complain about ambiguity
>>   - drop some "random" rock
>>   - allow the user to choose
>  Of these, the second and fourth get in the way of the game.
>The real choice is between the first and the third. I chose the
>first because it fell naturally from the way I was processing
>adjectives and so on as operators applied to sets of candidate
>objects. Once players got used to it, switching to another version
>was not an attractive option.

I would disagree with that - As a player, I'd rather have the game
abort a command than perform an unwanted command.  I'd rather it
do nothing than do the wrong thing.  For me the dividing line
between choosing method 2 or 4, then, would depend on how cleanly
#4 could be implemented.