>I am not flaming here, but I am explaining how alot of us newbie coders >feel. Alot of us have no C coding ability at all, but wish to learn as we >go along - i am one of these, only having COBOL and MODULE-2 coding skills >(i know - eeeeerk :P). However I still want to get a mud running quickly >while I learn C, and so we ask for people with C experience to help us - >after all once we have learned C we can help you with your problems :) > Therefore please just ignore our long lists of compiling errors if you >cannot be bothered to help, but please dont flame the list just because >your sick of inexperienced people doing muds :) One suggestion for this is to do something similar to what I did. Before I started to code on MUD's, I had only knowledge of the following languages: BASIC, Pascal, Hyperyalk/Supertalk, Lingo & some robotics languages (I'm an Electromechanical Engineering Technichian/Programmer) I didn't want to learn to program in MUD's by jumping in and starting to code. I knew that I wouldn't get anywhere. What I did was get on a MUD, and asked if I could do coding to become a god. I just wanted a low level god at first. Sammy (the same one on the list) was the one I dealt with and he helped me out a bit, by telling me what files to look at to add new races (as that was some of my first coding that I did) After a few months, I went on and started asking more detailed questions and looking at more advanced code. Finally I sat down and looked at a piece of code I couldn't understand when I started and tried to decipher what it did. I found that after a couple months of learning by 'hack coding' I could understand the basics of CircleMUD programming, even though I had no formal training in C. My next step after learning as much as I could about C from CircleMUD code was to grab a book. It's a good book entitled "C in Plain English" by Brian Overland. It's a great book to learn most of C's syntax, and it even helps you understand pointers (which still scare me, although I can use struct & char pointers with little problem) The idea of just grabbing a copy of the CircleMUD code and trying to learn C by starting a new MUD is a very quick way of doing things. C is a very structured language, but one that has many solutions to the same problem, and as such, is very confusing. It might be better for all out there who wish to learn by just asking to learn to code by making things for MUD's. Firstly, I know a lot of people want to ask them to make you an implementor and get site access and all that. That's not usually a reasonable thing to do. Look at what they see. Someone they don't know coming on and asking for a peep at their code, and access to all their files. That would send alarm bells off with me. So, tell them that you will try to program simple things like races (and now classes since bpl 8 or so) and send them the stuff to add. They can put it in and test it. After a while they may give you site access, and you can start to experiment for yourself. Just think of programming in C like jumping into an ocean. If you start from the edge, you can start by swimming, if you jump into the middle, you may just drown. Being also a MUD player as well as a coder, I have found that MUD's started by newbie coders have a tendancy of not staying up for very long. The MUD's tend to look all alike, and players just get bored and leave. To get a MUD that works, you really need to look at various MUD's at what makes them popular, and then think up new ideas for your own. The Husband and Wife team from heck! E-mail: nauvie@netcom.ca Amy Biggs: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/3461 Ryan Biggs: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/3460 +-----------------------------------------------------------+ | Ensure that you have read the CircleMUD Mailing List FAQ: | | http://cspo.queensu.ca/~fletcher/Circle/list_faq.html | +-----------------------------------------------------------+
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