February 1999
- client images Chris Gray
- Question on c++ switch optimization, and parsers in general. Ben Greear
- Question on c++ switch optimization, and parsers in general. Adam Wiggins
- Question on c++ switch optimization, and parsers in general. Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Question on c++ switch optimization, and parsers in general. Chris Gray
- Question on c++ switch optimization, and parsers in general. Chris Gray
- Question on c++ switch optimization, and parsers in general. T. Alexander Popiel
- Question on c++ switch optimization, and parsers in general. Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Question on c++ switch optimization, and parsers in general. Richard Woolcock
- Question on c++ switch optimization, and parsers in general. Marc Hernandez
- Question on c++ switch optimization, and parsers i Chris Gray
- Question on c++ switch optimization, and parsers i Jon A. Lambert
- Question on c++ switch optimization, and parsers i Chris Gray
- optimizing code diablo@best.com
- optimizing code Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- optimizing code Chris Gray
- code profiling Chris Gray
- World-file parsing and RTTI? The Arrow
- World-file parsing and RTTI? Mark Gritter
- pet peeves diablo@best.com
- pet peeves diablo@best.com
- pet peeves Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- pet peeves Marc Bowden
- pet peeves Richard Woolcock
- pet peeves Koster, Raph
- pet peeves diablo@best.com
- pet peeves Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- pet peeves Kristen Koster
- pet peeves Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- pet peeves Adam Wiggins
- pet peeves Wes Connell
- pet peeves J C Lawrence
- pet peeves Matthew Mihaly
- pet peeves Ling
- pet peeves Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- pet peeves Matthew Mihaly
- pet peeves Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- pet peeves Matthew Mihaly
- pet peeves David Bennett
- pet peeves Robert Woods
- pet peeves Wes Connell
- pet peeves Travis S. Casey
- pet peeves Matthew Mihaly
- pet peeves Neerenberg, AaronX
- pet peeves greg
- pet peeves Richard Woolcock
- pet peeves J C Lawrence
- pet peeves Martin Keegan
- pet peeves Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- pet peeves J C Lawrence
- pet peeves diablo@best.com
- pet peeves Brandon A Downey
- pet peeves diablo@best.com
- pet peeves Darren Henderson
- pet peeves diablo@best.com
- pet peeves Darren Henderson
- pet peeves Steve Houchard
- pet peeves diablo@best.com
- pet peeves Darren Henderson
- pet peeves diablo@best.com
- pet peeves Steve Houchard
- pet peeves diablo@best.com
- pet peeves Richard Woolcock
- pet peeves diablo@best.com
- pet peeves Richard Woolcock
- pet peeves Apocalypse
- pet peeves Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- pet peeves diablo@best.com
- pet peeves Adam Wiggins
- pet peeves diablo@best.com
- pet peeves Adam Wiggins
- pet peeves diablo@best.com
- pet peeves Mik Clarke
- pet peeves Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- pet peeves Travis S. Casey
- pet peeves Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- pet peeves Benjamin D. Wiechel
- pet peeves Marc Bowden
- pet peeves Matthew Mihaly
- pet peeves Mik Clarke
- pet peeves Benjamin D. Wiechel
- pet peeves Matthew Mihaly
- pet peeves Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- pet peeves Marc Bowden
- pet peeves Matthew Mihaly
- pet peeves David Bennett
- pet peeves David Bennett
- pet peeves Petri Virkkula
- pet peeves J C Lawrence
- Horror Themed Muds [was CthulhuMud Driver 6] Christopher Allen
- Horror Themed Muds [was CthulhuMud Driver 6] Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Horror Themed Muds [was CthulhuMud Driver 6] Mik Clarke
- CthulhuMud Driver 6 Mik Clarke
- CthulhuMud Driver 6 J C Lawrence
- Mathengine Ling
- Mathengine Apocalypse
- Website update Koster, Raph
- Influential muds Koster, Raph
- Influential muds Dan Shiovitz
- Influential muds Adam Wiggins
- Influential muds Sunny Gulati
- Influential muds diablo@best.com
- Influential muds Juha Lindfors
- Influential muds Brandon J. Rickman
- Influential muds Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Influential muds Andy Cink
- Influential muds J C Lawrence
- Influential muds Dr. Cat
- Influential muds Jay Carlson
- Influential muds Mik Clarke
- Influential muds Richard Woolcock
- Influential muds Koster, Raph
- Influential muds Mik Clarke
- Influential muds Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Influential muds Dan Root
- Influential muds Benjamin D. Wiechel
- State of the art? Andy Cink
- State of the art? diablo@best.com
On Mon, 15 Feb 1999, Andy Cink wrote:
> This got me thinking, is there a difference between "fun" and
> "state of the art"? For example, maybe mud A is well coded,
> has lots of fancy code, is extremely efficient, has lots of
> buzz words (all the fancy technical stuff about databases
> and such that goes right over my head :)) but is completely
> boring to play.
State of the art doesn't just mean code. I don't think I'd even consider a
mud that was state-of-the-art code-wise, but fairly blah otherwise to be
state-of-the-art. It might have state-of-the-art code, but it isn't a
state of the art MUD, when considered as a whole.
>
> Then we have mud B that's based on merc or envy or circle,
> and has lots of clever ideas, spells, races, classes, as
> well as interesting quests for the players, lots of items,
> variety, etc, etc.
>
> In terms of advancing the state of the art, it's entirely
> possibility that the kudos would go to mud A. They found
> lots of clever and advanced ways of making things happen.
> Their groundwork would later allow future coders to do
> things that mud B could never support. But the thing is,
> mud A is a technological marvel but completely boring,
> and mud B is a lot of fun, but technologically lacking.
I think part of what you are saying depends on whether you wish to talk of
a MUD-in-whole, or about aspects of a MUD. For instance, take a MUD that
has a single brand-spanking-new feature. Is the MUD state-of-the-art? Does
it get to be called that by having one new feature, especially if it isn't
near the cutting edge in every other area? Further, we all certainly have
different opinions on what would constitute state-of-the-art design and
code wise (especially design), so what standards prevail in answering this
question?
I'll give an analogy. Let's say you wanted to talk about state-of-the-art
in restaurants. You'd think about a place that advance the culinary art.
A temple to food with an innovative chef who creates new combinations, and
uses subtler flavours, and who executes everything so beautifully and
flawlessly you feel as if surely something divine has found its expression
in the hands of the artist who created the food.
On the other hand you have McDonalds, a chain of nearly identical,
plastic-moulded offences to taste that serve cheap, consistent, and nearly
inedible 'food'. You don't dine at them, you feed at the trough. However
bad their food is though, their business model, which is essentially their
code, is great and they have to be commended for that. They were pioneers
in the area of franchising and were (perhaps not anymore) state-of-the-art
in that area. But, would you say that they are a state-of-the-art
restaurant?
I certainly would not, although I would call the first restaurant
state-of-the-art. Some may consider McDonalds a state-of-the-art
restaurant, but their idea of what the word restaurant differs from mine.
McDonalds, as a restaurant, fails on every level except consistency and
cleanliness, to me, and these are just basic standards I expect in a
restaurant. Nevertheless, there are aspects of McDonalds-as-an-entity that
are (or were) state-of-the-art, although they are invisible to me as a
potential customer.
I'm not really positing any answers with this question, but more
suggesting that the question as posed of 'What is state of the art?' is a
difficult question to answer without deciding on what basis you want to
judge it. Design issues primarily, but coding issues to lesser extent, are
not a case of "C is universally better than B, B is universally better
than A".
--matt - State of the art? Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- State of the art? ##Make Nylander
- State of the art? diablo@best.com
- State of the art? Martin Keegan
- State of the art? David Bennett
- State of the art? Martin Keegan
- State of the art? Andy Cink
- State of the art? J C Lawrence
- State of the art? David Bennett
- State of the art? Matthew Mihaly
- State of the art? Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- State of the art? Matthew Mihaly
- State of the art? Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- State of the art? Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- State of the art? J C Lawrence
- State of the art? Matthew Mihaly
- State of the art? Mik Clarke
- State of the art? J C Lawrence
- State of the art? diablo@best.com
- The Terrorist Class Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- The Terrorist Class Mik Clarke
- Welcome To "MUD-Dev"! mud-dev-admin@kanga.nu
- IMPORTANT ADMIN: New list setup requires your attention J C Lawrence
- ADMIN: URL change J C Lawrence
- PermaDeath (was pet peeves) Marc Hernandez
- ScryMUD 1.8.7 released. Ben Greear
- PermaDeath Sayeed
- PermaDeath Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- PermaDeath Sayeed
- roleplaying and immersion (was: PermaDeath) Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Roleplaying and Immersion (was: PermaDeath) Sayeed
- Roleplaying and Immersion (was: PermaDeath) Adam Wiggins
- Roleplaying and Immersion (was: PermaDeath) J C Lawrence
- Roleplaying and Immersion (was: PermaDeath) Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- WEB: VR-stuff Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- WEB: VR-stuff J C Lawrence
- WEB: VR-stuff Mik Clarke
- WEB: VR-stuff Marian Griffith
- WEB: VR-stuff J C Lawrence
- ADMIN: The list archives are now online and fully searchable J C Lawrence
- Theories was pet peeves Wes Connell