I'm thinking about building a new MUD server (for those who are less
ancient than I, think "MUD == text only MMORPG"). I'd like to allow
players to build and program objects in the world, but I'd rather avoid
having to write my own programming language. I was wondering whether an
existing scripting language like Ruby might be useable?
The first problem is, of course, that I don't want the players to be
able to do _everything_ the language offers. Their code should only
affect the running of the world, and they should not be able to change
or delete files on my system or do other nasty things.
I'm aware of the $SAFE setting and the tainting procedure, but I'm not
sure how I could use this to do what I want. Any suggestions?
Malcolm
I'm thinking about building a new MUD server (for those who are less
ancient than I, think "MUD == text only MMORPG"). I'd like to allow
players to build and program objects in the world, but I'd rather avoid
having to write my own programming language. I was wondering whether an
existing scripting language like Ruby might be useable?
The first problem is, of course, that I don't want the players to be
able to do _everything_ the language offers. Their code should only
affect the running of the world, and they should not be able to change
or delete files on my system or do other nasty things.
I'm aware of the $SAFE setting and the tainting procedure, but I'm not
sure how I could use this to do what I want. Any suggestions?
Well, this isn't exactly an answer to your question, but...
Have you heard of FaerieMUD?
···
On 12/13/05, malcolm.ryan@gmail.com <malcolm.ryan@gmail.com> wrote:
Malcolm
--
Bill Guindon (aka aGorilla)
This is the usual idiom for "super" safe code:
Thread.new do
$SAFE = 4
eval(code)
end
However, someone will always find a way to mess things up. What I would suggest is a combination of this plus having the mud running in at least two processes. The one on which the user code runs would run as a user with almost no filesystem permissions, but would have a way to communicate with the other process (such as drb). You then provide an API to do things that require persisting stuff to disk. ie rather that them doing
File.open("new_character_class.class", "w") do |file|
# create a chraacter class
end
you have something like:
CharacterClass.add_class("new_character_class", ...)
···
On Dec 13, 2005, at 10:22 PM, malcolm.ryan@gmail.com wrote:
I'm thinking about building a new MUD server (for those who are less
ancient than I, think "MUD == text only MMORPG"). I'd like to allow
players to build and program objects in the world, but I'd rather avoid
having to write my own programming language. I was wondering whether an
existing scripting language like Ruby might be useable?
The first problem is, of course, that I don't want the players to be
able to do _everything_ the language offers. Their code should only
affect the running of the world, and they should not be able to change
or delete files on my system or do other nasty things.
I'm aware of the $SAFE setting and the tainting procedure, but I'm not
sure how I could use this to do what I want. Any suggestions?
Malcolm
If you are hoping to create a MUD with some object-oriented language,
then the result would probably be called a "MOO".
Building an entire MOO from scratch is going to be a lot of work,
particularly if you want it to be reliable in all the little-boring-details,
such as handling many simultaneous network connections (some of
which will be going haywire...), and not having some tiny memory
leak which turns into gigabytes of wasted memory after the MOO
has been up-and-running for 10 weeks straight. You'll also probably
want some notion of access-levels, such that users can modify the
objects they create, but they don't modify the objects which
implement the login-sequence to your virtual world.
You might want to start with some already existing MOO, like the
LambdaMOO project at sourceforge, and then change that such
that the language is more ruby-like. Of course, that would also be
a project that requires a lot of work!
Some friends and I use a slightly-modified version of LambdaMOO
for a chat-system we wrote, and it handles many of the details that
we probably never would have done right. And even *with* all that
work done, there is plenty of work in defining our actual "virtual
world" that we never get around to everything we'd like to do.
There are many things I like about LambdaMOO, but certainly I
would like it more if the language "looked and felt" more like ruby!
···
On 12/13/05, malcolm.ryan@gmail.com <malcolm.ryan@gmail.com> wrote:
I'm thinking about building a new MUD server (for those who are less
ancient than I, think "MUD == text only MMORPG"). I'd like to allow
players to build and program objects in the world, but I'd rather avoid
having to write my own programming language. I was wondering whether an
existing scripting language like Ruby might be useable?
--
Garance Alistair Drosehn = drosihn@gmail.com
Senior Systems Programmer or gad@FreeBSD.org
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Troy, NY; USA
More MUDs in this thread:
http://rubyurl.com/Mhl
And another Ruby MUD had the best announcement I've ever seen on this list:
http://rubyurl.com/OG8
James Edward Gray II
···
On Dec 13, 2005, at 9:33 PM, Bill Guindon wrote:
Well, this isn't exactly an answer to your question, but...
Have you heard of FaerieMUD?
http://www.faeriemud.org/
As far as handling all the connection garbage, the FaerieMUD guys have this to offer:
···
On Dec 15, 2005, at 2:00 AM, Garance A Drosehn wrote:
On 12/13/05, malcolm.ryan@gmail.com <malcolm.ryan@gmail.com> wrote:
I'm thinking about building a new MUD server (for those who are less
ancient than I, think "MUD == text only MMORPG"). I'd like to allow
players to build and program objects in the world, but I'd rather avoid
having to write my own programming language. I was wondering whether an
existing scripting language like Ruby might be useable?
If you are hoping to create a MUD with some object-oriented language,
then the result would probably be called a "MOO".
Building an entire MOO from scratch is going to be a lot of work,
particularly if you want it to be reliable in all the little-boring-details,
such as handling many simultaneous network connections (some of
which will be going haywire...), and not having some tiny memory
leak which turns into gigabytes of wasted memory after the MOO
has been up-and-running for 10 weeks straight. You'll also probably
want some notion of access-levels, such that users can modify the
objects they create, but they don't modify the objects which
implement the login-sequence to your virtual world.
You might want to start with some already existing MOO, like the
LambdaMOO project at sourceforge, and then change that such
that the language is more ruby-like. Of course, that would also be
a project that requires a lot of work!
Some friends and I use a slightly-modified version of LambdaMOO
for a chat-system we wrote, and it handles many of the details that
we probably never would have done right. And even *with* all that
work done, there is plenty of work in defining our actual "virtual
world" that we never get around to everything we'd like to do.
There are many things I like about LambdaMOO, but certainly I
would like it more if the language "looked and felt" more like ruby!
--
Garance Alistair Drosehn = drosihn@gmail.com
Senior Systems Programmer or gad@FreeBSD.org
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Troy, NY; USA
I don't believe MUES is intended to be that high level. I don't believe MUES even provides the whole room/object concept. It just handles the serving of information to the client and multiplexing the IO. Any in-game building would be coded at a higher level than MUES. You could look at FaerieMUD itself and see if that provides in game building. (I suspect not, FaerieMUD seems to be a very classically styled RPG (as opposed to a more Second Life-esque MUD (sorry can't remember the acronym for those kinds of MUDs, MUSH maybe?), at least in terms of flavor, if not necessarily implementation.)
···
On Dec 19, 2005, at 5:42 PM, malcolm.ryan@gmail.com wrote:
Bill Guindon wrote:
On 12/13/05, malcolm.ryan@gmail.com <malcolm.ryan@gmail.com> wrote:
I'm thinking about building a new MUD server (for those who are less
ancient than I, think "MUD == text only MMORPG"). I'd like to allow
players to build and program objects in the world, but I'd rather avoid
having to write my own programming language. I was wondering whether an
existing scripting language like Ruby might be useable?
Well, this isn't exactly an answer to your question, but...
Have you heard of FaerieMUD?
http://www.faeriemud.org/
Does MUES allow in-game building by players?
It's not immediately apparent from the web pages.
Malcolm
Bill Guindon wrote:
I'm thinking about building a new MUD server (for those who are less
ancient than I, think "MUD == text only MMORPG"). I'd like to allow
players to build and program objects in the world, but I'd rather
avoid
having to write my own programming language.
Hey Gang 
I recently joined this list because I too am building a MUD with Ruby.
Bill, you absolutely must to check out TeensyMUD:
http://sourcery.dyndns.org/teensymud/index.html
I doubt you'll find anything more suitable for your needs.
Regards,
Massaria
Ok all,
I'm amped on toying with a Ruby Mud...
WHO is serving one (not "trial size") ???
Thanks.
···
On 12/20/05, Tobias Jonch <joench@gmail.com> wrote:
> Bill Guindon wrote:
>>> I'm thinking about building a new MUD server (for those who are less
>>> ancient than I, think "MUD == text only MMORPG"). I'd like to allow
>>> players to build and program objects in the world, but I'd rather
>>> avoid
>>> having to write my own programming language.
Hey Gang
I recently joined this list because I too am building a MUD with Ruby.
Bill, you absolutely must to check out TeensyMUD:
http://sourcery.dyndns.org/teensymud/index.html
I doubt you'll find anything more suitable for your needs.
Regards,
Massaria
--
------------------------------
Forget the icing. Bake the Cake!
- the epi-centered developer
------------------------------
Peter Fitzgibbons
Tobias Jonch wrote:
Bill Guindon wrote:
I'm thinking about building a new MUD server (for those who are less
ancient than I, think "MUD == text only MMORPG"). I'd like to allow
players to build and program objects in the world, but I'd rather
avoid
having to write my own programming language.
Hey Gang
I recently joined this list because I too am building a MUD with Ruby.
Bill, you absolutely must to check out TeensyMUD:
TeensyMUD 3.0.0 Mud Server
I doubt you'll find anything more suitable for your needs.
Regards,
Massaria
Here is where I have been
E, also known as Muir
···
--
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/\.
Eero Saynatkari wrote:
Tobias Jonch wrote:
Massaria
Here is where I have been
E, also known as Muir
You shouldn't be here.
You should be admiring my 1st rails app over at http://teensymud.kicks-ass.org
Well.. then you can come back here if you like. 
I'm am going to release it, but I fear being arrested for abuse of MVC.
···
--
Jon Lambert
Peter Fitzgibbons wrote:
Ok all,
I'm amped on toying with a Ruby Mud...
WHO is serving one (not "trial size") ???
Thanks.
I have a page which lists all the ruby mud projects I know of.
http://teensymud.kicks-ass.org/wiki/show/OtherRubyMuds
I think only FaerieMud is close enough to be serving up more than just a bite size game.
···
--
J. Lambert