Gammon Forum

Worstje said:

I wasn't planning on posting, since nobody needs to be told the same thing twice. However, I do want to make a comparison.

You have a button. You press the button, the light works. How is this implemented? The accepted way is to simply close the electrical circuit and voila, done.

The other way is to make a Ruby Goldberg machine. Your button nudges a domino, que 100 more, then something turns and a ball rolls, etc etc, and eventually a little robotic hand screws in a lightbulb.

Ridiculous? Probably, but I'm exaggurating with a reason. The latter way has so many fault points and unnecessary complexity that it is bound to cause trouble. A domino might no fall, the turny thing doesn't have enough momentum, the robot hand slips on the lightbulb, etc.

In comparison, the button is proven technology. It works with tons of different lightbulbs. It is simple. If one breaks, you can easily fix it. In the same way, using GMCP will not only allow existing mappers to work with it, it will also be simple to maintain: there's no logic to start and stop the omitting of lines, no other user triggers that might fire first and possibly prevent your script from running, and no chance on 'it breaks and now my output is being eaten!' sort of problems.

GMCP is a very simple protocol. Any codebase worth its name will make it very simple. The amount of bugs and time the crappy method will involve is paid back a hundred times by biting he bullet on GMCP and doing it 'right' from the get-go. (Learning how to use a wheel beats inventing it based on a picture!)

If this sounds like an elitist lecture, I apologize for coming across that way. But I see this happen far too often: people choose the 'crappy' methods because it is all they know, and other thing are the things of wizards and dragons. Ruby Goldberg machines are what come out of such situations almost every single time, and they'll never be 'replaced' by those in charge because it always 'almost works'. In the meanwhile, everyone (coders and players both) suffer the consequences. :)

Good luck with whatever method you go with. :-)

Martin4503 said:
It works for a SMAUG MUD translated in spanish?

Dougan said:

A little history for background: Our mud has been around since 1992 and is a heavily custom diku. Our telnet negotiation currently does not support GMCP, but it is on the project road map for later in the year. We are doing a lot of recoding and redevelopment to update the mud and bring it out of 1989 standards.