[Voidrider]

I was a tabletop RPG self-publisher and writer long before I ever considered running my own mud, basically an "idea" man. I never had an initial interest in learning to code anything and, initially had no unix/linux or scripting knowledge.

As I began to work on my own project, however, just going through the process of adding snippets, modifying code and all those other tidbits that Ide mentioned (love the post, btw), I found myself learning how to READ the code and getting better at it over time.

The ability to read the code I was working with gradually increased my familiarity with the source code. As a by-product of this, I was inspired by little things that I found out I could DO with the base code, oftentimes with very little work.

Compiling errors became an incentive to learn more about coding, or at least improve the impromptu coding that I was sorta doing. It was not until I later ran into major issues (as in, "why can't I get this to work?!") that I had a desire to learn C language more officially.

In the long run, I have discovered learning about code (even at my level) to be rather FUN. I personally love to see one of my built areas installed and watch it come to life. Playing with code for various reasons is just another level of fun to me.

Someone like myself can screw around with a source code and get by easily enough, as long as that code possesses enough features to satisfy one's mud "goals" or be modified easily enough to do so.

At the very least, I would recommend to pick a codebase that will do this for you and, if nothing else, familiarize yourself with your tools (like the code) at hand. You might never have a problem with running or compiling and then, bam, one day you do. Having that familiarity will come into play that day.