On Tue, 31 Dec 2002, Adam Scriven wrote: > It seems to me it would be a very big job, so is there anything I should > take into consideration to make it "patchable" to other systems, to > people don't have to duplicate my work? It should be a fairly small, isolated job. As you've observed, it's very similar to the code for drinking. Thus, you have a complete template off of which to work. > I'm a newbie at this Patching thing... how portable is it? Patches are typically not forwards/backwards compatible. The mechanism is inherently fragile. A patch is generated by using the 'diff' program to compare a set of "old" files (e.g., stock CircleMUD v3.1) against a set of "new" files (e.g., CircleMUD v3.1 with "smokeables"). The 'diff' program outputs a set of instructions that tell you (or the 'patch' program) how to modify the old files to turn them into the new ones. Once you understand how it works, it's obvious why it's a hit-or-miss enterprise. A patch is only guaranteed to go in cleanly if it's being applied to files that match the "old" files whence the patch was produced. Things usually are a bit more forgiving. Certain types of changes, typically those unrelated to the patch, can be automatically handled. Others, howver, require human intervention. This is one of the reasons we suggest hand-patching. > Is there anything reasonably that can be done to fix that, [...] ? The only thing to be done is for people to contribute back to the community. These older patches have lots of users who have individually done the work to apply them to newer versions of CircleMUD. I can't imagine why these users don't take the few extra steps to release the updated version of a patch. Reducing the maintainence burden on the original patch developer seems like a great way to show your appreciation; it also frees him up to contribute more. -dak -- +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | FAQ: http://qsilver.queensu.ca/~fletchra/Circle/list-faq.html | | Archives: http://post.queensu.ca/listserv/wwwarch/circle.html | | Newbie List: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/circle-newbies/ | +---------------------------------------------------------------+
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