<!-- MHonArc v2.4.4 --> <!--X-Subject: [MUD-Dev] Re: Bruce Sterling on Virtual Community goals --> <!--X-From-R13: "Pehpr [vgpurare, Xe." <oehprNcherzntvp.pbz> --> <!--X-Date: Tue, 20 Oct 1998 23:04:27 -0700 --> <!--X-Message-Id: 028f01bdfcb8$747cf450$58f272cf#howdy,cybersight.com --> <!--X-Content-Type: text/plain --> <!--X-Head-End--> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"> <html> <head> <title>MUD-Dev message, [MUD-Dev] Re: Bruce Sterling on Virtual Community goals</title> <!-- meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow" --> <link rev="made" href="mailto:bruce#puremagic,com"> </head> <body background="/backgrounds/paperback.gif" bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000" link="#0000FF" alink="#FF0000" vlink="#006000"> <font size="+4" color="#804040"> <strong><em>MUD-Dev<br>mailing list archive</em></strong> </font> <br> [ <a href="../">Other Periods</a> | <a href="../../">Other mailing lists</a> | <a href="/search.php3">Search</a> ] <br clear=all><hr> <!--X-Body-Begin--> <!--X-User-Header--> <!--X-User-Header-End--> <!--X-TopPNI--> Date: [ <a href="msg00291.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00293.html">Next</a> ] Thread: [ <a href="msg00291.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00297.html">Next</a> ] Index: [ <A HREF="author.html#00292">Author</A> | <A HREF="#00292">Date</A> | <A HREF="thread.html#00292">Thread</A> ] <!--X-TopPNI-End--> <!--X-MsgBody--> <!--X-Subject-Header-Begin--> <H1>[MUD-Dev] Re: Bruce Sterling on Virtual Community goals</H1> <HR> <!--X-Subject-Header-End--> <!--X-Head-of-Message--> <UL> <LI><em>To</em>: <<A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A>></LI> <LI><em>Subject</em>: [MUD-Dev] Re: Bruce Sterling on Virtual Community goals</LI> <LI><em>From</em>: "Bruce Mitchener, Jr." <<A HREF="mailto:bruce#puremagic,com">bruce#puremagic,com</A>></LI> <LI><em>Date</em>: Tue, 20 Oct 1998 23:02:58 -0700</LI> <LI><em>Reply-To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI> </UL> <!--X-Head-of-Message-End--> <!--X-Head-Body-Sep-Begin--> <HR> <!--X-Head-Body-Sep-End--> <!--X-Body-of-Message--> <PRE> Good day all, I've been wanting to reply to something in this thread for a while now, but was (am?) a bit afraid of sounding too evangelistic. I'm with the Cold Project and head up the driver development over there. On Tuesday, 20 Oct 1998, Marc Hernandez wrote: >On Wed, 21 Oct 1998, Joel Kelso wrote: >}What specifications are people interested in ? A personal feature list for a >}MUD, in >}rough order of priority: > >} * persistent object store and network accessability (obviously) > We've got this. We have a disk-based database, employing caches for keeping currently (and recently) used objects in memory. This cache is resizeable at startup time, but I'd like to see it be resizeable at runtime. All of our networking code is done in-DB (the higher level part of the system, written in ColdC, not part of the driver). >} * text-based network interface for a "player" class of user (at least) > > Im personally interested in it as a base for a graphical mud. >Thus it would be nice if this type of functionality could be at least >#ifdefed out. Also 'player' might mean very different things to different >people. Isn't this a higher-level issue belonging more with the design of the system built upon the base? Although, I am used to a more minimal base with as much left out of it as possible. >} * programming language and tools for building large, complex and >} dynamic virtual worlds We've got this. Cold is currently used by The Eternal City, a commercial game with a very large, complex, dynamic virtual world. It is also used for things totally un-related to virtual worlds. It's also the system behind HoloTrek, www.holo.org. > Hmmm. A default language should be provided but the VM doesnt >need to know about it. Right now, the language is fairly embedded into the system, but, within limits, I'm not sure that this is necessary and that with some work, there could be multiple languages on the same VM. Alternatively, you could have m ultiple VMs and flag which VM is used for which code on a method by method basis, or object by object (or whatever). >} * dynamic programming and world-building environment (ie ability to >} add and modify functionality without taking down server) I'd view this as a given when you've brought an embedded language into the system? >} * ability to communicate objects between servers This could be written at a higher level using the networking functionality that the rest of the system uses. People have done this in Cold. >} * portable source code We're fairly portable, running on Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris. Soon we should be running on HP-UX (configure issues), and thanks to a fellow list member, our Win32 port will be up to date again soon. >} * scalability onto future hardware >} * distributed database/processing for multiple-machine servers I'd love to write a full post or ten about distribution and why I don't think it has to happen at the driver (VM) level, but, rather, can be an feature of the DB/core built on top of the base system. My personal plan is to base my core around event channels, and to not limit them to just the single server, but allow events to flow between servers, with all of that code being written in the embedded language. Of course, if the events are specified well enough, who is to say that one couldn't write some sort of event processor in Python, or Java, or C? I haven't seen network extensions for Intercal, so perhaps Intercal wouldn't be permissible. > * Low level security (perhaps by 'process' or something) We have the ability to see what object called the current method, what object defined the method that called the current method, etc. In ColdCore, we have a fairly good security infrastructure built upon that. Someone else has built a much more complicated security structure that is much closer to that of MOO. Some other interesting work: <A HREF="ftp://publications.ai.mit.edu/ai-publications/1500-1999/AIM-1564.ps.Z">ftp://publications.ai.mit.edu/ai-publications/1500-1999/AIM-1564.ps.Z</A> (HTML version at <A HREF="http://206.165.240.44/LispOS/secureos.htm">http://206.165.240.44/LispOS/secureos.htm</A>) > There is also the Cold project. Im not sure about some of its >features but it has or will have many of these. Im also not sure about >its license. Our license fully permits commercial usage. It is currently being used commercially, and I've used it for some commercial work previously. I feel that we have many of these features, although current development plans on the driver include things like adding threading to the driver to separate out some of the networking code and other pieces, adding ways to analyze the runtime performance of the database caches, internationalization support for the string datatype, support for IPv6, etc. We don't do everything perfectly, in fact there are a number of things that we could probably do better, but I think that Cold currently has many of the features that are being discussed and has an appropriate license. I have a number of topics relating to some of this that I want to bring up on here in the future, but I really need to finish digging myself out from underneath a big pile at work. - Bruce </PRE> <!--X-Body-of-Message-End--> <!--X-MsgBody-End--> <!--X-Follow-Ups--> <HR> <ul compact><li><strong>Follow-Ups</strong>: <ul> <li><strong><A NAME="00298" HREF="msg00298.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Bruce Sterling on Virtual Community goals</A></strong> <ul compact><li><em>From:</em> "Adam J. Thornton" <adam#phoenix,Princeton.EDU></li></ul> <li><strong><A NAME="00297" HREF="msg00297.html">[MUD-Dev] Recursive look</A></strong> <ul compact><li><em>From:</em> Ling <K.L.Lo-94#student,lboro.ac.uk></li></ul> </UL></LI></UL> <!--X-Follow-Ups-End--> <!--X-References--> <!--X-References-End--> <!--X-BotPNI--> <UL> <LI>Prev by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00291.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Bruce Sterling on Virtual Community goals</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00293.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Hacks/Diablo/etc (was: Re: [MUD-Dev] Re: Trusting the Client (Re: Laws of Online World D esign))</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Prev by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00291.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Bruce Sterling on Virtual Community goals</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00297.html">[MUD-Dev] Recursive look</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Index(es): <UL> <LI><A HREF="index.html#00292"><STRONG>Date</STRONG></A></LI> <LI><A HREF="thread.html#00292"><STRONG>Thread</STRONG></A></LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> <!--X-BotPNI-End--> <!--X-User-Footer--> <!--X-User-Footer-End--> <ul><li>Thread context: <BLOCKQUOTE><UL> <LI><STRONG>[MUD-Dev] Re: Bruce Sterling on Virtual Community goals</STRONG>, <EM>(continued)</EM> <ul compact> <LI><strong><A NAME="00267" HREF="msg00267.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Bruce Sterling on Virtual Community goals</A></strong>, Chris Gray <a href="mailto:cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA">cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA</a>, Tue 20 Oct 1998, 05:17 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00290" HREF="msg00290.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Bruce Sterling on Virtual Community goals</A></strong>, Chris Gray <a href="mailto:cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA">cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA</a>, Wed 21 Oct 1998, 05:14 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00332" HREF="msg00332.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Bruce Sterling on Virtual Community goals</A></strong>, Jon A. Lambert <a href="mailto:jlsysinc#ix,netcom.com">jlsysinc#ix,netcom.com</a>, Thu 22 Oct 1998, 01:50 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00291" HREF="msg00291.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Bruce Sterling on Virtual Community goals</A></strong>, Chris Gray <a href="mailto:cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA">cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA</a>, Wed 21 Oct 1998, 05:29 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00292" HREF="msg00292.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Bruce Sterling on Virtual Community goals</A></strong>, Bruce Mitchener, Jr. <a href="mailto:bruce#puremagic,com">bruce#puremagic,com</a>, Wed 21 Oct 1998, 06:04 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00297" HREF="msg00297.html">[MUD-Dev] Recursive look</A></strong>, Ling <a href="mailto:K.L.Lo-94#student,lboro.ac.uk">K.L.Lo-94#student,lboro.ac.uk</a>, Wed 21 Oct 1998, 14:41 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00300" HREF="msg00300.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Recursive look</A></strong>, Holly Sommer <a href="mailto:hsommer#micro,ti.com">hsommer#micro,ti.com</a>, Wed 21 Oct 1998, 15:10 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00305" HREF="msg00305.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Recursive look</A></strong>, The Wildman <a href="mailto:wildman#microserve,net">wildman#microserve,net</a>, Wed 21 Oct 1998, 16:48 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00315" HREF="msg00315.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Recursive look</A></strong>, David Bennett <a href="mailto:ddt#discworld,imaginary.com">ddt#discworld,imaginary.com</a>, Wed 21 Oct 1998, 18:37 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> </LI> </ul> </LI> </UL></BLOCKQUOTE> </ul> <hr> <center> [ <a href="../">Other Periods</a> | <a href="../../">Other mailing lists</a> | <a href="/search.php3">Search</a> ] </center> <hr> </body> </html>