Stuff about this community and this site
One major point as yet unaddressed by topics so far is negotiating how to enter the new protocol's mode. And then additionally, the client might want to inform the server of some things it can do, which again lowers the minimum requirements for what a client should support.
So last time I pulled a markup language out of thin air and presented it as the most likely candidate so far for representing the data for the new protocol. Like I'd mentioned, this wasn't really something I planned to think about this early in the development stages but hey, guess plans don't always work out. Most of the reason was that I'd already given it some thought, and I needed a quick example to show, because it's hard to communicate ideas at the level of abstraction of 'there is no representation, just think of data hanging off a bit of text'. Yeah.. In related news, there is no spoon.
Anyway.. I've already fielded some questions on why I didn't pick this other already existing format or another, and since these questions will come up more often, let me answer them here now.
I promised in my last few posts I wouldn't want to discuss the actual representation of the protocol. I guess I lied. An example I presented today was met with enthusiasm from various parties, including at least one of the poor sods who would have to implement it. Thus I present: ESE (Extremely Simplified Enamel)
Let me briefly cover two additional topics on the matter. One's about how to proceed once some ideas have trickled in. One's on, more or less, what the protocol would do as I envision it (but not yet HOW). I strongly suggest not reading this post until after you've made your suggestion on the previous one, if you're planning to do that.
Huge disclaimer to start: Nothing may come of this.
If you can live with that, let me add a redeeming thingy: If I don't actually work on this at all, at least the data will be available for future reference.
So are you ready? Okay.. Given an implementation of a new protocol to do the sort of thing Pueblo does, but isn't Pueblo, what sort of things would you require? What sort of things would you suggest avoiding?
I for one welcome our new evil overlord.
You shouldn't notice any difference to how Jav did it and how I will do it, though he has had more experience. I will also be a fair (I can say that right?) and just (I am hoping I can say that too) administrator of this community forum, and hopefully we get lots more informative articles written (like we are all used to from the early days years ago).
I'm pleased to announce that community.pennmush.org will so be managed by user ray73864, known to many as qa'toq@M*U*S*H, who has generously agreed to take over from me. There will be a brief period of transition where we're both managing the site as he gets up to speed, and then I'll be just another pretty avatar!
I have a proposal: Leverage our strong community of MUSHers and beat down our communal sense of laziness. =)
Let's Get Something Done on the weekend of December 10!
Pleased to report that I've just run my highest altitude MUSH. 35,000 feet, over Pennsylvania, thanks to American Airlines in-flight wifi, a win32 penn binary, and the power of reverse ssh tunneling.
Because at some level, all text-based games are related, I thought it appropriate to share this link with the community.
http://nickm.com/post/2010/01/a-note-on-the-word-zork/
From the article:
The lowdown on Zork’s name, inasmuch as a lowdown has been provided in print, was given by authors Dave Lebling, Marc Blank, and Tim Anderson in 1979 in the article “Zork: A Computerized Fantasy Simulation Game,” Computer 12:4, 51-59 (April 1979):
