LotJ Codebase

Hi all,

I was wondering if the LotJ codebase is supposed to be private or not. It was my understanding that it was private; I found this out while porting a version to C++. (I was working with somebody who provided the codebase, who claimed it was fine, etc.)

In any case I was wondering what the (pseudo-)legal issues are here. I have no objection to releasing my C++ port of the code if the LotJ owners are fine with it. Does anybody know the status on this or how to get in touch with them?

Thanks...

I imm on LotJ, and as far as I know, the versions in circulation were never meant to be released, as an upset admin with shell access took it from the owner, but the new owner/admins don't have a problem with it being out as far as I know. I only code on it, though, so I can't say officially, but the original is at lotj.wolfpaw.net:5000. Orion or Anna can give an official stance, though as far as I know, its ok.

[EDIT]I have left a message for one of the two owners to come and comment on this here, so hopefully soon. If you do end up releasing it, I would love to take a look.

OK, thanks. :) I could definitely give it to you guys since you run it, I was just wondering about public release. (And also, somebody asked me for it...)

It all depends on the version you have.

While I encourage other people in their work, and I don't discourage people making things better, I am not entirely thrilled at the concept of a beefy, new and improved version of LOTJ for release to the general populace, as it may have a negative impact on the popularity of my mud.

Pending a decision by me, following a review of the code, I may or may not give permission for the release of your modified codebase.

Please send me an email and we can arrange the specifics.
Thank you for inquiring first.

Greetings once again. I had replied to your email that you sent me, but there was a slight problem. The email you sent the message from appears to be the email addy for the forums, as when I hit REPLY and typed the response out, it went to Nick Gammon, and not you.

Perhaps it would be most prudent for you to just read this response here, so I can clear the air.

I don't want any sort of LOTJ derivatives floating around, much less a revamped version with C++ capability. It poses a risk to the mud I co-own and spend 90% of my free time working on. It would be like seeing over a year's work down the drain, or on it's way down the drain. The only thing LOTJ has right now to keep us ahead of anyone who gets ahold of the old source is that most of the bugs have been fixed.

I learned how to code on the LOTJ codebase, and have invested a lot of time in it. If I knew then what I know now, and spent a year working on it from this point instead of as a brand new coder, I'd be laughing at the prospect of any old version, or revamped one, being released. This is just not the case.

I would appreciate it if you would do one of two things. Either destroy the c++ codebase and never distribute it, or use it for your own purposes and, again, never distribute it. I am all for the development of new coders, but to me this seems like a side-project for an already competent coder. The little guy here is me :(

Thanks for the consideration, and in the future, please use a real email account and not the PHP powered forums account (just a guess), or something like that, as replying to that is crazy hard. If you put your email addy in the message you sent me... then I shall adorn my head with the many whacks of my bamboo stick in penance to my thick headedness :D

That's funny - normally when you send emails through the forum, it puts the person's address in the reply-to field. In fact, I'm looking right now at an email sent to me via the forum and it is indeed set up to reply to the right person. But there's no PHP powered account or anything - my email address is kept private but you can send me email by clicking on my username and then on "send email" or something like that. (I don't want it displayed openly to avoid spam.)


Anyway, I think you're vastly overestimating the impact of a C++ port. Nothing was moved to classes - it was just made to compile under C++ with as few changes as possible. That means things like the pointers were made to adhere to strict standards (C++ is less flexible about manipulating pointers), variables named 'class' were renamed, etc. But, if you don't want it distributed, that's fine with me. I have no particular desire to distribute it anyway - the only reason this came up is that somebody asked me for it. :)

Thanks though and good luck with your codebase.

Sorry to say but from my understanding Ghost holds all rights to the LotJ Base, even above Orion and Anna. I play on a mud build on an older LotJ codebase that was given to the admin by Ghost, the original creator of LotJ.

Helix, this is really not the place to get into an arguement over the rights to the LotJ base. If you want to discuss it, please contact one of the LotJ admins.

This is a coding forums, and I can just see this turning into a flame war.

If/when this gets resolved - and I agree that here is not the place to resolve it - let me know, so that I know whether or not to post the codebase...

Alright, I talked to Ghost and found out that he did sign full power over to Anna and Orion at some point in time. Good Work to Anna and Orion to making the very best Star Wars MUD on the whole of the NET.

My question is that: How many versions have been leaked? Just one? If so I as well have a copy of this code.

There have been, unfortunately, 2 code leaks. The first is the most wide spread, the second only available to 1 or 2 people, I beleive.