Okay, not ENTIRELY MUD-based.

A java class that I have requires that we submit one major project at the end of the semester.

I have been toying with the idea of making a rather (crappily) cool new client for connecting to MUDs.  I have something less than 9 weeks in which to do it, and I was wondering if any of you veterans out there know if such a thing can be done.

I'm not looking for amazing abilities, cool graphics, awesome super-cool features.  Just some crap-thing that will connect to a MUD and let the user use it that would get me a passing grade.


If it is possible, I would appreciate ALL the help I could get in doing this.  What is needed?  Any ideas how to do it?  Any resources?  Any help at all?

If it's successful, I plan on expanding on it, cleaning it up, and hopefully making something that actually has greater capabilities after the semester.

- Almondine War
AIM:  Catwithalaser
EMAIL:

Hello,

With java you can get a pretty standard mud client going in like a week of time, that has all standard things such as telnet parsing, aliases, macros, triggers, logging etc.

Of course it might not be very professional with a week of time and one person working on it, but it should be functional.

Is there a way around the restriction that java clients can only connect back to the host the applet was downloaded from?

Way back when I was toying with java applets, I found this restriction the most annoying.

- gth.

PS: And no, I'd rather not use a redirecting program running on the webserver host; very few web admins allow such a utility.

The original poster didn't say they needed to make an applet. Normal Java applications (not browser based) are not restricted in the ways that applets are.

I plan on making an application.

For some odd reason, I find them more desirable than applets.

The biggest thing I'm worried about is..well.. how DO you connect to any given MUD? Is there something hidden away in the API that I havn't found quite yet?

My experience so far with Java (or any programming) has been almost entirely writing stand-alone little programs that really have no great use other than to sit there and look pretty or help me solve some stupid math problem I'm too lazy to work out on paper (of course, I'd much rather write a program JUST for that purpose...yup..).

So, I have had NO experience with online stuff, server-client relationships, bla bla bla. Anything any real guru would know about.

This is what I need the most help in (unfortunately, it just happens to be at the core of functionality).

You open a TCP connection to the given host and port. Then, you proceed to read data whenever it's available and write it whenever you need to. That much is trivial and there are hundreds of chat client/server pairs implemented in Java out there. When it comes to muds the slightly tricky parts include handling telnet codes and ANSI codes.

Java socket handling will be in any decent Java book, though I expect there are more than enough examples online anyway. Telnet handling is described in the relevant RFCs and ANSI codes are documented across the web too.

Earlier today, I withdrew from the school I went to--I no longer have a Java class, so it would be rather pointless to do this as an assignment.

But this also means that I now have almost an infinite amount of time to do this, and would welcome any tips.