Basternae.org

I finished testing the issue code today.  We now have a functional ‘help desk database’ for the MUD.  It’s primitive, but it should do the trick and can be expanded/changed as necessary.  At least we’ve eliminated the bug, idea, typo, and ‘helps needed’ files that admins would rarely, if ever, look at.  Here’s an example of usage:

< > issue update 2 This is a test issue.
Issue 2 updated with text This is a test issue.

< > issue close 2 Testing the issue entry system.
Issue 2 closed with resolution Testing the issue entry system.

< > issue show 2
Issue Number: 2   Priority: high   Type: helpentryrequest
Is Closed: True   Opened by Imm: True   In Room: 0
Created by: Xangis   Time: 7/6/2008 11:14 AM   Text:
disarm
Entered by: Xangis   Time: 7/6/2008 11:32 AM   Text:
this
Entered by: Xangis   Time: 7/6/2008 11:36 AM   Text:
This is a test issue.
Closed by: Xangis   Time: 7/6/2008 11:37 AM   Text:
Testing the issue entry system.

< > requesthelp disarm
Help entry request recorded.  Thank you.

< > issue list
Issues:
[3] (lowest) Help Request: disarm
[4] (lowest) Help Request: issue
[5] (lowest) Help Request: ignore

< > Issue Number: 3   Priority: lowest   Type: helpentryrequest
Is Closed: False   Opened by Imm: True   In Room: 0
Created by: Xangis   Time: 7/6/2008 11:25 AM   Text:
Help Request: disarm

< > issue priority 3 lowest
Issue 3 priority set to lowest.

I’ve put together a simple “zone permission contract” here:
http://www.basternae.org/BasternaeZoneContract.pdf

It’s probably not necessary, but while I was publishing my science fiction magazine I found it to be a good idea to get everything in “official” writing.

If you have written any zones you’d like to let us use or know someone who has, this can be sent either to my xangis at yahoo mail account or to the following mailing address:

Jason Champion
Zeta Centauri, Inc.
1388 Clydesdale Ave.
Columbus, OH 43229

I’ve added a to-do list under the ‘Pages’ section. It’s not quite complete and the formatting isn’t all that great, but it might be a useful way to keep track of what needs to be done. At the very least it’ll give readers some idea what I’m working on.

So far I’ve been using simple “todo.txt” files in each of my Visual Studio projects, but that keeps them from being all in one place and is a bit disorganized.

OK, so maybe I didn’t announce the vacation in the first place, but I took some time off from working on Bast to enjoy the summer.

I’ve been working on the client a bit, and I had almost forgotten how much I dislike C++.  It’s just so messy and inefficient to work with.  You have to spend about 30% more time to get anything done and then once you’re done you have a pretty good chance of having to do some memory-based debugging.

Enough of the whining (because that’s what it is).  Just posting a note to let folks know work is continuing.

It’s been a busy week at work — just got myself a promotion and haven’t had a chance to work on the MUD as much as I’d like (more tired in the evenings than out of time, really). Most of this week’s effort has been directed toward the editor.

I’m wondering whether it would be a better idea to release a prototype of the editor to get ideas and suggestions or wait until it’s pretty much useable before releasing it.  It’s probably a difference of about 4 weeks in time/effort.

It wouldn’t have been unrealistic for the designers of .NET to find a way to make this work:

foreach( Item i in ItemList )
{
  if( i.ShouldBeRemoved )
  {
    ItemList.Remove(i);
  }
}

What happens is you get a ‘collection modified’ exception and you’re hosed. You can’t move to the next item in the list because removing the item broke the list. It wouldn’t have been that hard for the design of IEnumerable (the thingy that makes foreach possible) to keep track of where the next item was even after a removal.

Instead of being able to use the above code, something like this clunky bit is required:

for( int i = (ItemList.Count - 1); i >= 0; i– )
{
  if( i.ShouldBeRemoved )
  {
    ItemList.Remove(i);
  }
}

It’s like telling someone they can avoid head-on car collisions by always driving in reverse.

Anyhow, there was a bit of a problem with the Select() command and socket management, and this was the solution. The socket code is now functional and stable enough that I can log in and run around trying to play the game. It’s not terribly playable yet — I have a *LOT* more work to do, but it’s still theoretically possible that a development server could go up i mid-but-more-likely-late May.

If you have a list of objects, say List<Widget> it’s mighty easy to to sort them using .NET.

First, derive the Widget class from IComparable:

public class Widget : IComparable

Then create the CompareTo method. In this case, we’re sorting the list of Widgets by name:

public int CompareTo(object obj)
{
  if( !(obj is SynthProfile ))
  {
    return 0; // We could throw an exception here if we wanted to.
  }
  return this.Name.CompareTo(((SynthProfile)obj).Name);
}

Once that’s done all you have to do is call:

WidgetList.Sort();

Easy.

Some of you may remember Raph from Ultima Online, Star Wars Galaxies, or Everquest II. He also wrote a few articles for Imaginary Realities webzine (a webzine about MUDs for those of you who don’t know). The site was pretty active from 1998-2001, but at some point it vanished from the face of the Earth.

Well, Raph was nice enough to give permission to reprint his IR articles on FindMUD. They’re a good read, and still relevant today, so if you’re at all interested in MUD design you should read ‘em over.

Raph’s blog is also pretty interesting and updated fairly regularly. It’s worth becoming a regular reader.

Data entry is a lot of work and it takes a lot of time. Even so, I’ve been making steady progress on FindMUD. It’s up to 300 MUD listings now.

Our next goal is to pass MudMagic, which has just over 500 listings. It won’t be blazingly fast, but it will happen.

I completed the last of the code for the command processing engine today. Not much detail to report — it’s done and seems to work well enough.