rang@cs.wisc.edu (Anton Rang) (11/17/90)
Archive-name: mud-clients/16-Nov-90
Original-posting-by: rang@cs.wisc.edu (Anton Rang)
Original-subject: Client software information
Reposted-by: emv@ox.com (Edward Vielmetti)
This is a post I'll be making periodically. It includes information
about where to get clients for the various MUDs. Please let me know
if you have additions, changes, corrections, or suggestions.
Changes since the last posting:
Updated information on MUD.el (thanks to Stewart Clamen).
LPTalk has been updated to version 1.2.1.
TinyFugue has been updated to version 1.3.0 beta.
Anton
[ Version 1.1 of 11/14/90. ]
What is a client?
-----------------
A "client" is a program which can be used to connect to a running
MUD. Most current MUD systems can be reached using the 'telnet'
program (standard on BSD UNIX, and available on many System V and VMS
machines). The clients listed here can be used as replacements for
telnet; they typically provide extra functions such as macros or a
screen mode.
What do I need to use a client?
-------------------------------
You need to have a computer account; if you only have telnet access
through a terminal server, you can't use a client. You must have
enough disk space in your account to store the client's code; under
UNIX, this is usually at least 45K for a small client, and may be as
large as 200K (or more!) for larger ones. (EMACS-based clients
typically require much less space, but you must have GNU EMACS
available to use them.)
You must also have the appropriate operating system. Many clients
require BSD UNIX. Others require System V with BSD networking
extensions. A few require VMS with MultiNet software. Some require
that you have GNU EMACS installed on a UNIX system with networking.
All non-EMACS clients that I know of are written in C. If you
haven't got a C compiler, you're out of luck.
How can I get a client?
-----------------------
You need to use 'anonymous FTP' to retrieve the clients below. (If
there's sufficient interest, I can go into more detail in this post,
but it's usually easier to find someone at your site who knows how.
I'm feeling too lazy to go through details right now.)
What clients are available?
---------------------------
Here's a listing of clients that I know of as of 11/5/90. It is
certain to be incomplete and quite possibly has some inaccuracies.
Please let me know of additions, changes, etc. so that I can correct
it in later posts. The "features" list is especially incomplete for
clients which I've never used. (It's also not exactly clear, and I'd
love suggestions for a new format.)
The location will be the name of a computer, and the directory in
which the clients' files are stored. The IP address is given in
parentheses for people without name service.
+------------+-----------+----------+-----------------------------------------+
| Name | System | Version | Location, features, and notes. |
+------------+-----------+----------+-----------------------------------------+
| TinyTalk | Unix | 1.1.6 | jaguar.cs.wisc.edu:~ftp/pub/tinytalk |
| | | | (128.105.1.202) |
| | BSD or | | |
| | S5 w/net | | TinyMUD; hiliting (whispers, pages, |
| | | | users); gag; auto-login; simple macros; |
| | | | logging; portals. |
+------------+-----------+----------+-----------------------------------------+
| TinyFugue | Unix | 1.3.0(b) | belch.berkeley.edu:~ftp/pub/mud_misc |
| | | | (128.32.152.202) |
| | BSD or | | |
| | S5 w/net | | TinyMUD; screen; hiliting (regexp); |
| | | | gag (regexp); auto-login; macros; |
| | | | logging; portals. |
+------------+-----------+----------+-----------------------------------------+
| TINT | VMS | 2.0 | lancelot.avalon.cs.cmu.edu:~ftp/pub |
| | MultiNet | | (128.2.242.79) |
| | VT-100 | | |
| | | | TinyMUD; hiliting (whispers, pages, |
| | | | users); gag; file load; simple macros; |
| | | | logging; screen. |
+------------+-----------+----------+-----------------------------------------+
| FooTalk | VMS | | lancelot.avalon.cs.cmu.edu:~ftp/pub |
| | MultiNet | | (128.2.242.79) |
| | | | |
| | BSD UNIX | | TinyMUD; programmable. |
+------------+-----------+----------+-----------------------------------------+
| TinyMUD.el | UNIX | | belch.berkeley.edu:~ftp/pub/mud_misc |
| | GNU EMACS | | (128.32.152.202) |
| | | | |
| | | | ( Superseded by MUD.el. ) |
| | | | |
| | | | TinyMUD; portals; ???. |
+------------+-----------+----------+-----------------------------------------+
| MUD.el | UNIX | | belch.berkeley.edu:~ftp/pub/mud_misc |
| | GNU EMACS | | (128.32.152.202) |
| | | | |
| | | | ( Designed to replace TinyMUD.el. ) |
| | | | |
| | | | TinyMUD; LPMud; auto-login; macros; |
| | | | logging; portals; screen; programmable. |
+------------+-----------+----------+-----------------------------------------+
| LPTalk | Unix | 1.2.1 | jaguar.cs.wisc.edu:~ftp/pub/tinytalk |
| | | | (128.105.1.202) |
| | BSD or | | |
| | S5 w/net | | LP-MUD; hiliting; gag; auto-login; |
| | | | simple macros; logging. |
+------------+-----------+----------+-----------------------------------------+
Partial explanation of features:
TinyMUD -- Supports TinyMUD servers.
LPMud -- Supports LP-MUD servers.
Auto-login -- Automatically logs into the game for you.
Hiliting -- Allows boldface or other emphasis to be applied to some
text. Often allowed on particular types of output (e.g. whispers), or
particular users. "Regexp" means that UNIX-style regular expressions
can be used to select text to hilite.
Gag -- Allows some text to be suppressed. The choice of what to
suppress is often similar to hiliting (users or regular expressions).
Macros -- Allows new commands to be defined. How complex a macro
can be varies greatly between clients; check the documentation for
details.
Logging -- Allows output from the MUD to be recorded in a file.
Portals -- Supports special MUD features which can automatically
reconnect you to another MUD server ("cyberports").
File load -- Allows a file to be sent to the MUD. This is useful
for programmable MUDs, for instance.
Screen -- Supports some sort of screen mode (beyond just scrolling
your output off the top of the screen) on some terminals. The exact
support varies.
Programmable -- Supports some sort of client-local programming.
Read the documentation.
+---------------------------+------------------+-------------+
| Anton Rang (grad student) | rang@cs.wisc.edu | UW--Madison |
+---------------------------+------------------+-------------+