Re: [Problem][I NEED HELP!] Adding in Races.

From: Daniel A. Koepke (dkoepke@circlemud.org)
Date: 02/10/02


On Sun, 10 Feb 2002, Abraham Dizon wrote:

> I did a search for 1 hour but didn't find them:

You wasted an hour.  Those lines do not appear in db.c in recent
patchlevels.  You could have discovered this in far less than an hour
using your text editor's search function or UNIX/Linux grep as follows:

  % grep -n 'GET_CLASS(ch) = st->class;' db.c
  % grep -n 'st->class = GET_CLASS(ch);' db.c

Since neither of these produce any output, you know there are no matching
lines.  Of course, the smart thing to do after that is to try various
substrings of the line you're looking for, to find near matches:

  % grep -n ' = st->class;' db.c
  % grep -n 'st->class = ' db.c
  % grep -n ' = GET_CLASS(ch);' db.c
  2334:  st->chclass = GET_CLASS(ch);
  % grep -n 'GET_CLASS(ch) = ' db.c
  2216:  GET_CLASS(ch) = st->chclass;

Note how the last two returned matches on lines 2334 and 2216?  Note also
how these matches look an awful lot like the lines you were searching for.

The lesson in this is that a little bit of strategy goes a very long way.


> *Coding on a MUD as a newbie coder is a learning project for me*
> *Though most people think not knowing how to code a MUD isn't a
> learning project*

It's not a learning project, even if you're trying to use it as one.
It's not a learning project, even if you're successfully using it as one.
It's not a learning project, period.

That you can learn from it is irrelevant.  You can also use a pair of
scissors for home surgery and, yet, it's still not a scalpel.  The answers
to "can you...?" and "has someone...?" do not confer identity.  In fact,
they're mostly useless questions.  Lots of things are possible (on some
strictly metaphysical level, everything is possible), but much fewer are
likely.  Lots of people have done things, but much fewer should have done
them.

You should not use a MUD for a learning project.  It is a convuluted,
horrible beast of several thousand lines.  It is modular, but in a twisted
fashion.  It is bound together by years of designed, redesigned, evolved,
and hacked together code.  A MUD is a chair held together by everything
from Elmer's glue to duct tape to nails -- you shouldn't use such a thing
to learn how to make furniture; you shouldn't be surprised if such a thing
collapses under your weight.  Most importantly, you shouldn't expect
people to jump to your aid every time it collapses beneath you.

You've been warned, now, so good luck in your endeavor...


-dak

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