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<H1>[MUD-Dev] Re: Bruce Sterling on Virtual Community goals</H1>
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<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>: "Jon A. Lambert" &lt;<A HREF="mailto:jlsysinc#ix,netcom.com">jlsysinc#ix,netcom.com</A>&gt;</LI>
<LI><em>Date</em>: Wed, 21 Oct 1998 20:29:26 -5</LI>
<LI><em>Reply-To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI>
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<PRE>
On 20 Oct 98, Marc Hernandez wrote:
&gt; On Tue, 20 Oct 1998, Jon A. Lambert wrote:
&gt; 
&gt; }Stack-based or psuedo-register based?
&gt; 
&gt; 	Does a psuedo register system create any real benefit?  They are
&gt; still implemented as memory locations AND have the additional benefit of
&gt; having to be saved and loaded (unless there is some nice benefit I didnt
&gt; think of (which is very possible (like reading lisp?))).
&gt;

IIRC, Java makes use of 4 psuedo-registers in addition to a stack.  
It's a mechanism to save instructions executing some arithmetic 
operations and some loop constructs.  It also makes native code 
generation more straight forward.  It's really an optimization issue. 
Reading and writing to a pseudo-register will always be cheaper
than pushing and popping a stack.  There's no stack pointer to
increment or decrement.  :)

&gt; }Details:
&gt; 
&gt; }Primitive data types to be represented.
&gt; }Complex data types (object).
&gt; 
&gt; 	Why?

Will the language be oject-oriented?.  
 
&gt; }Label generation.
&gt; 
&gt; 	hmmm.  Isnt this only for the assemblers benefit?  Why not skip to
&gt; memory locations?

Well there may be some benefits to decompilation and/or pretty 
printing, if that's a desired feature.  Yes, you can easily forego 
label generation and use offsets.

&gt; }Symbolic storage.
&gt; }Variable storage.
&gt; }Type conversions/promotions.
&gt; 
&gt; 	Isnt this basically a compile time issue? 
&gt; 

It depends.  If a compiler supports very weak typing, type 
conversions must be done at run time. 

A sample, (see Coolmud)

var A;
A = "string";
A = 1.57

And there are type promotions to consider:

float A;
int B;

A = B * 1.4;

Is B temporarily promoted to a float at runtime?

&gt; }Booleans/conditionals.
&gt; 
&gt; 	necessary for looping/control.  Doesnt have to be true booleans.

Right.  I actually meant boolean operations like (x AND NOT y).

&gt; }Operator precedence.
&gt; 
&gt; 	operator precedence is taken care of by the compiler (else
&gt; expression evaluators would be very easy to right :-) ).
&gt;

Nod.  

&gt; }Unique ID's are crucial to object manipulation.  For instance the 
&gt; }interface to a ROM drop in might be object/room vnums.  Those objects 
&gt; }would have no methods of course.  I would think the specifications 
&gt; }for "object" would be a custom interface.  A generic way to descibe 
&gt; }an object to the VM would be needed.  
&gt; 
&gt; 	Such as leave it as 'memory' and let the language impose its own
&gt; structure to it.  (like the fact that there are no 'signed' integers to
&gt; the processor.  Just sets of bits with operations on them.  We impose the
&gt; fact that _these_ four bytes are a signed integer and thus we use
&gt; SignedAdd etc).

I'm not sure.   How does the language address the object Player or 
the attributes of object Player?

--
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--/*\   "Everything that deceives may be said to enchant" - Plato   /*\--


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<LI><STRONG><A NAME="00285" HREF="msg00285.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Bruce Sterling on Virtual Community goals</A></STRONG>
<UL><LI><EM>From:</EM> "Jon A. Lambert" &lt;jlsysinc#ix,netcom.com&gt;</LI></UL></LI>
<LI><STRONG><A NAME="00288" HREF="msg00288.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Bruce Sterling on Virtual Community goals</A></STRONG>
<UL><LI><EM>From:</EM> Marc Hernandez &lt;marc#jb,com&gt;</LI></UL></LI>
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<ul><li>Thread context:
<BLOCKQUOTE><UL>
<LI><STRONG>[MUD-Dev] Re: Bruce Sterling on Virtual Community goals</STRONG>, <EM>(continued)</EM>
<ul compact>
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<LI><strong><A NAME="00328" HREF="msg00328.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Bruce Sterling on Virtual Community goals</A></strong>, 
J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#under,engr.sgi.com">claw#under,engr.sgi.com</a>, Thu 22 Oct 1998, 01:30 GMT
</LI>
</ul>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00289" HREF="msg00289.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>, Wed 21 Oct 1998, 04:53 GMT
</LI>
</ul>
</ul>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00285" HREF="msg00285.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>, Wed 21 Oct 1998, 03:10 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00288" HREF="msg00288.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Bruce Sterling on Virtual Community goals</A></strong>, 
Marc Hernandez <a href="mailto:marc#jb,com">marc#jb,com</a>, Wed 21 Oct 1998, 04:50 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00324" HREF="msg00324.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, 00:32 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
</UL>
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</ul>
</ul>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00263" HREF="msg00263.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, 04:42 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00264" HREF="msg00264.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Bruce Sterling on Virtual Community goals</A></strong>, 
J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#kanga,nu">claw#kanga,nu</a>, Tue 20 Oct 1998, 04:45 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00265" HREF="msg00265.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, 04:50 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00269" HREF="msg00269.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Bruce Sterling on Virtual Community goals</A></strong>, 
Jon Leonard <a href="mailto:jleonard#divcom,slimy.com">jleonard#divcom,slimy.com</a>, Tue 20 Oct 1998, 06:19 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
</ul>
</LI>
</UL></BLOCKQUOTE>

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