[Will]

I had considered building an engine from scratch, but I'm not sure that's the direction I want to go now. I'd like to find a bare-bones OO codebase similar to MOO. I'd actually use Lambda if it were disk-based, but...

Also, if you were writing from scratch, would you use C/C++, Java, Python or something else?

[Atyreus]

Originally Posted by Will I had considered building an engine from scratch, but I'm not sure that's the direction I want to go now. I'd like to find a bare-bones OO codebase similar to MOO. I'd actually use Lambda if it were disk-based, but...

You should take a look at ColdC/Genesis (the Cold Project). It has some similarities to MOO, but it is disk-based. A couple of extremely bare-bones cores are available. I've been working with ColdC for about a year and a half now, and I consider it one of the best kept secrets of MUD codebases. The only downside is that there isn't much in the way of a ColdC community. There is a mailing list, but I'm not sure it's even active anymore.

[Will]

Originally Posted by Atyreus You should take a look at ColdC/Genesis (the Cold Project). It has some similarities to MOO, but it is disk-based. A couple of extremely bare-bones cores are available. I've been working with ColdC for about a year and a half now, and I consider it one of the best kept secrets of MUD codebases. The only downside is that there isn't much in the way of a ColdC community. There is a mailing list, but I'm not sure it's even active anymore.

I've looked at Cold and love its features. Why haven't more people used it?

[Valaria]

well... i tries to ./configure genesis and apparently it didnt work.. it say it need gdbm or ndbm. i did install gdbm, but it didnt see it. so i dont know how to make it see it OR configure is broken itself.

[Atyreus]

Originally Posted by Valaria well... i tries to ./configure genesis and apparently it didnt work.. it say it need gdbm or ndbm. i did install gdbm, but it didnt see it. so i dont know how to make it see it OR configure is broken itself.

Ugh... yeah, the configure script sometimes needs to be kicked around a little. IIRC, while using one flavor of Linux (Slackware maybe?) I had to edit the script so that it would just use gdbm instead of trying to decide on its own what particular dbm was available. Also, I believe there is a typo in the script that will keep it from properly determining if ndbm is available. I'm at work at the moment though, and don't have a copy of the script available to look at.

As to why more people don't use ColdC, that is something that really baffles me (though I suppose a tetchy configure script might not exactly endear it to some potential users). It has a non-restrictive license, it's extremely stable, and it's relatively easy to learn even given the dearth of documentation. As with LPC, it allows you to make modifications to your game on the fly, but has the added advantage that you don't need to reload objects in order for the modifications to take place. The ColdC language is ideal for the development of text based games, but it makes almost no assumptions about the sort of game you wish to develop, giving you about as much flexibility as you can have without coding a game from scratch.

All that said, there seems to be only about four or five muds (including Skotos' The Eternal City) that use it. Go figure.

[Valaria]

Originally Posted by Atyreus Ugh... yeah, the configure script sometimes needs to be kicked around a little. IIRC, while using one flavor of Linux (Slackware maybe?) I had to edit the script so that it would just use gdbm instead of trying to decide on its own what particular dbm was available. Also, I believe there is a typo in the script that will keep it from properly determining if ndbm is available. I'm at work at the moment though, and don't have a copy of the script available to look at. As to why more people don't use ColdC, that is something that really baffles me (though I suppose a tetchy configure script might not exactly endear it to some potential users). It has a non-restrictive license, it's extremely stable, and it's relatively easy to learn even given the dearth of documentation. As with LPC, it allows you to make modifications to your game on the fly, but has the added advantage that you don't need to reload objects in order for the modifications to take place. The ColdC language is ideal for the development of text based games, but it makes almost no assumptions about the sort of game you wish to develop, giving you about as much flexibility as you can have without coding a game from scratch. All that said, there seems to be only about four or five muds (including Skotos' The Eternal City) that use it. Go figure.

well someone would need to fix configure makefile. meh. that probably only one thing that fustrates me. I am using Ubuntu distro at the moment. can you tell me how can i change it to use GDBM at all? thanks.

[Atyreus]

Originally Posted by Valaria well someone would need to fix configure makefile. meh. that probably only one thing that fustrates me. I am using Ubuntu distro at the moment. can you tell me how can i change it to use GDBM at all? thanks.

Here are the steps that I had to take to get "configure" to set the driver up to use gdbm (this has worked under both RedHat and Slackware). This may or may not work for you depending on the exact problem you are having with the script.

First find the line in "configure" that reads:

for ac_hdr in gdbm/ndbm.h db1/ndbm.h ndbm.h db.h

and simply change it to

for ac_hdr in db1/ndbm.h ndbm.h db.h gdbm/ndbm.h

This will keep the script from going with one of the other flavors of dbm instead. If this doesn't work and you know gdbm is available, you'll have to force the script to use the proper header file. To do this, find the line

if test -z "$db_header_to_use"; then

and insert the following before it:

echo "      Forcing the use of gdbm/ndbm.h" 1>&6
db_header_file_to_use=gdbm/ndbm.h

Next, find the following lines in "configure":

if test -z "$db_lib_to_use"; then
   echo "      Unable to figure out what library to ling to get db support"
   exit 1
else
   LIBS="-l$db_lib_to_use $LIBS"
   echo "      Using... -l$db_lib_to_use" 1>&6
fi

Comment these lines out and then insert

echo "      Forcing the use of -lgdbm" 1>&6
LIBS="-lgdbm $LIBS"