> But it brings up an ageold question ;-) Editors for CircleMUD, sure
> enough, Stock circle's aren't that hard writing Editors for. Even writing
> Editors that can be expanded with more flags isn't that hard, e.g. Have it
> read a config-file and thus you're home free and you still support the
> stock circle, and even expanding to those who have figured (No offence to
> anyone :) out how to put in more flags than just the stock.
>
> But.. An editor is best written for the mud that uses it imho, be that
> either by having a copy of the mud for the builders, have someone write an
> editor that suits your needs,
I both agree and disagree with this. I disagree, because it is
possible, however difficult, to create an editor which is generic enough
to be usable for all circlemud systems. The problem of course, is how to
get it configured.
I personally think that using self-descriptive world file formats
would be a good idea (XML seems a bit overblown for this.. maybe ascii
pfile tag-lines). Using this sort of syntax, including the _type_ of
variable saved (number, and what's its range, is it a bitvector; or text,
etc) would be possible. Worse comes to worse, you could even have the
world format described in some sort of custom script.
This is all very possible, and all doable.
But it's a severe pain in the neck.
I think that a good first step would be to simply have a standard,
open source circlemud editor. Built in the same way circlemud was - no
frills, but easy to expand upon. After a while, the momentum may gather
to include some sort of automatic configuration file. I know I'd make my
copy of the editor download the files directly to the mud and alter
rooms/areas in real time, as well as upload a configuration file and
conversion rules for areas existing pre-conversion. Guess I'd have to
stick a versioning system in there. In anycase though, it doesn't matter,
because there is no editor like that out there.
The only source I have found was written for borland OWL format,
and that was source I had a retired developer finally send me. The
program didn't work very well, and I couldn't recompile it due to the
different dependancies on the borland system (I had cygnus and MSVC at the
time).
If anyone wants to collaborate on that sort of a project, I have
been kicking a few ideas around. The only thing I'm really stuck on
though, is that we make the source as free to have as circle's.
PjD
p.s. Is there any good reason why the diagonal directions are not
standard in circle? I know it's a frill, but it seems like if someone
doesn't want them, they just don't have to use them. No code changes
required, just don't make diagonal exits. Many seem to want them though.
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