April 1999
- In-Game Languages Eli Stevens {KiZurich}
- In-Game Languages Per Vognsen
- In-Game Languages Chris Gray
- In-Game Languages Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- In-Game Languages Eli Stevens {KiZurich}
- In-Game Languages Matthew D. Fuller
- In-Game Languages Mik Clarke
- In-Game Languages Michael Hohensee
- In-Game Languages Ben Greear
- In-Game Languages Michael Hohensee
- In-Game Languages Mik Clarke
- In-Game Languages Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- In-Game Languages David Bennett
- In-Game Languages Richard Woolcock
- In-Game Languages Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- In-Game Languages Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- In-Game Languages Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- In-Game Languages Andrew Ritchie
- In-Game Languages Matthew D. Fuller
- In-Game Languages adam@treyarch.com
- forward: consistency Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Confined Gameworld Ling
- Confined Gameworld Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Confined Gameworld Richard Woolcock
- Confined Gameworld Eli Stevens {KiZurich}
- Confined Gameworld The Wildman
- Confined Gameworld Koster, Raph
- User centered? Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- User centered? Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- User centered? Marc Bowden
- User centered? Adam Wiggins
- User centered? Richard Woolcock
- User centered? Benjamin D. Wiechel
- User centered? Koster, Raph
- target audience Matthew Mihaly
- target audience Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- target audience Marc Bowden
- Fw: Self-organizing worlds (was: Elder Games) Kylotan
- Fw: Self-organizing worlds (was: Elder Games) Matthew Mihaly
- ScryMUD 1.8.11 released. Ben Greear
- Mud driver architecture info B. Scott Boding
- Blending graphics with text u1391470
- Blending graphics with text Laurel Fan
- Blending graphics with text Kylotan
- Blending graphics with text Chris Gray
- Blending graphics with text J C Lawrence
- Blending graphics with text Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Blending graphics with text Chris Gray
- Blending graphics with text Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Blending graphics with text Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- Blending graphics with text Mik Clarke
- Blending graphics with text u1391470
- Blending graphics with text claw@kanga.nu
- Blending graphics with text Alex Stewart
- Blending graphics with text J C Lawrence
- Virtual machine design Shane King
- Virtual machine design Alex Stewart
- Virtual machine design Jo Dillon
- Virtual machine design Ben Greear
- Virtual machine design Niklas Elmqvist
On Sat, 17 Apr 1999, Ben Greear wrote:
[Ben Greear:]
> I'm curious why so many people want to build internal languages into
> their MUD? I don't mean to sound critical, it's just that I have never
> really seen the benefit.
Indeed, why do we use programming languages at all? Why don't we program
in pure machine code in our respective OS:es? The basic answer is of
course that program languages in all forms raises the abstraction level
and moves the focus to a specific problem domain. It is infinitely easier
to do systems programming in C than in pure machine code. By designing
your own internal MUD language, you are able to raise the abstraction
level even further and adapt it to the needs of the MUD (the problem
domain), making it that much easier to solve the problems that come up
when programming the MUD. Now people that don't view themselves as
programmers maybe can get their hands dirty and write some quality game
code. This will most definitely not happen when these people are faced
with the prospect of navigating a lot of #ifdefs and curly braces in order
to do the same things in pure C.
We are seeing this kind of development in almost all areas of software
development. In the computer games industry, for example, the trend has
been to increasingly build *engines* and then use them as a base to build
upon when making individual games. This means that the programmers are
faced with the challenge of building code that must be generic and
flexible. Designers, artists and level designers will be the people adding
real content to the game, not the programmers themselves. This often rules
out using real programming languages for extending the game. The solution
often is to build a miniature programming language for use by designers
and such when adding content.
There are other arguments for internal languages, of course. Security is
one thing -- you can design rather nifty security systems which prevents
game code to run amok and allocate too much memory or resources, for
example. With an internal MUD language, you can also do on-the-fly
compiling (to byte-code, for example) and use it without having to reboot.
I am sure a lot of people could help me out here and give some more good
arguments.
> Ben Greear (greear@cyberhighway.net) http://www.primenet.com/~greear
> Author of ScryMUD: mud.primenet.com 4444 (Released under GPL)
> http://www.primenet.com/~greear/ScryMUD/scry.html
-- Niklas Elmqvist (d97elm@dtek.chalmers.se) ----------------------
- "Are you a physicist?"
- "Me? I don't know anything about science!"
- "Marvellous! Ideal qualification!"
-- Terry Pratchett, Johnny and the Dead - Virtual machine design Shane King
- Virtual machine design Ben Greear
- Virtual machine design claw@kanga.nu
- Virtual machine design Alex Stewart
- Virtual machine design Felix A. Croes
- Virtual machine design Eli Stevens {KiZurich}
- Virtual machine design Mik Clarke
- Virtual machine design Schubert, Damion
- Virtual machine design Ben Greear
- Virtual machine design Ben Greear
- Virtual machine design Felix A. Croes
- Virtual machine design Matthew Mihaly
- Virtual machine design Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- Virtual machine design claw@kanga.nu
- Virtual machine design Mik Clarke
- Virtual machine design Oliver Jowett
- Virtual machine design Niklas Elmqvist
- Virtual machine design Chris Gray
- Virtual machine design claw@kanga.nu
- Virtual machine design Chris Gray
- Virtual machine design Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Virtual machine design claw@kanga.nu
- Virtual machine design Petri Virkkula
- Virtual machine design Ben Greear
- Virtual machine design Chris Gray
- Virtual machine design Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Virtual machine design Nathan F Yospe
- Virtual machine design Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Virtual machine design Petri Virkkula
- Virtual machine design Jon A. Lambert
- Virtual machine design Koster, Raph
- Virtual machine design Jon A. Lambert
- Virtual machine design Chris Gray
- Rebooting (was: Virtual machine design) Eli Stevens {KiZurich}
- Game design highpoints (was Virtual machine design) claw@kanga.nu
- Sockets Quzah [softhome]
- ScryMUD 1.8.13 snapshot released. Ben Greear
- Interview I did that may interest you Koster, Raph
- Censorship Greg Munt
- Censorship Ben Greear
- Censorship Matthew Mihaly
- Censorship Shawn Halpenny
- Censorship Darren Henderson
- Censorship Quzah [softhome]
- Censorship Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- Python B. Scott Boding
- Python Gaffney, Jeremy
- AW: Censorship Hofbauer Heinz
- AW: Censorship Matthew Mihaly
- AW: Censorship Damion Schubert
- Censorship, Virtual v Artificial Worlds, Python Greg Munt
- Censorship, Virtual v Artificial Worlds, Python Matthew Mihaly
- Censorship, Virtual v Artificial Worlds, Python Ben Greear
- Censorship, Virtual v Artificial Worlds, Python Matthew Mihaly
- Censorship, Virtual v Artificial Worlds, Python Matthew Mihaly
- Censorship, Virtual v Artificial Worlds, Python Ben Greear
- Censorship, Virtual v Artificial Worlds, Python Dan
- Censorship, Virtual v Artificial Worlds, Python Matthew Mihaly
- Censorship, Virtual v Artificial Worlds, Python Marian Griffith
- Censorship, Virtual v Artificial Worlds, Python Benjamin D. Wiechel
- Censorship & Its Impact On World Immersion Greg Munt
- Censorship & Its Impact On World Immersion Matthew Mihaly