rearl@belch.Berkeley.EDU (ChupChup) (10/05/90)
Archive-name: tinymuck/v2.2
Original-posting-by: rearl@belch.Berkeley.EDU (ChupChup)
Original-subject: TinyMUCK 2.2
Archive-site: belch.berkeley.edu [128.32.152.202]
Archive-directory: /pub/tinymuck
Reposted-by: emv@math.lsa.umich.edu (Edward Vielmetti)
... is available for ftp on belch.berkeley.edu in the directory
pub/tinymuck. Beta testing has been successfully completed and this
is the official 2.2 version. I think you'll find 2.2 more enjoyable
and robust than previous versions. There are tons of additions for
programmers, builders, and players alike.
Known Problems:
- There is a large, very large, switch in interp.c. Some compilers
(assemblers actually) have been known to barf on this and produce
some bogus code. You don't know it's hit you until the game crashes
with a broken stack frame. I would like everyone who runs into this
problem to *PLEASE* mail me a letter, including a description of
your machine's compiler and architecture. I'd like an accurate
count of how many sites are affected with this and if it's
worthwhile to post a patch for 2.2. Now, this is a problem
with your assembler and not the code, but here are some viable
solutions (after you yell at your vendor):
- Use the GNU assembler (gas) by calling gcc with a path argument
(on my system it's -B/usr/local/your/gnu/path)
- Break the switch at the bottom of interp.c into two parts --
be careful because not all the primitives are in numerical order.
- Wait for my patch :) :)
I recommend #1 or #2. If someone would like to send me a patch I
will gladly stick that up for ftp. The sooner I can rip into this
and start 2.3 the better.
- The compiler does quite a bit of recursion while it does its job.
This has caused some lesser machines to crash when they reach the
soft stacksize limit. The solution is simple: in your shell or
startup script, enter the line `limit stacksize 1m' or so.
- There is little documentation. This should be fixed Real Soon (tm)
as I have some trusted people working on a brand new MUCK (&!MUF)
history and manual. But I'm particularly proud of the new MUF
manual, originally written by Jethro (rawdon@rex.cs.tulane.edu)
and updated for 2.2 by myself.
Anyway, enough of that unpleasant stuff. A word about reporting bugs:
IF you find one, PLEASE do not post it to the net. Mail a description
of the problem, with some sort of debugger output if possible, to myself
or one of the people listed in the SUPPORT file included in the
distribution. I guarantee you will get a quicker response by dealing
directly with people familiar with TinyMUCK programming.
(By the way, is there anyone out there who wants to post some MUF
code, or mail it to me, for a new MUF.examples file? Some brand
new 2.2 ideas are just begging to be put to good use in some
beginners' examples!)
-- ChupChup
--
rearl@belch.berkeley.edu
rearl@grunt.berkeley.edu
rearl@ucsd.edu