[OT] MUD building

[Ben Pfaff]

Sean <picasso@madflower.com> writes:

[...about writing a MUD...]
> It would be a good "beginner" coding project for people wanting to learn
> Python. I do see a lot of benefits from the project. 

I pity the "beginner" who tries to write a MUD.  Writing a MUD is
a nontrivial endeavour, involving (at least) the following
issues:

	* State machine coding, if single-threaded, or
          synchronization issues, if multithreaded/multiprocess.

	* Natural language processing.

	* Network interfaces (probably want an integrated TELNET
          server).

	* Database management, for managing the world environment.

	* Real-time processing, for handling turns.

	* If graphical: network protocol design and multiplatform
          GUI design.

	* If extensible: compiler & interpreter design, for an
          embedded programming language.  (If writing in Python
          you could probably sidestep this requirement, but you
          still have to worry about security issues in that case,
          if you allow high-level users to modify the
          environment.)

	* File format design, for checkpointing the database.