[MUD-Dev] Re: Standard Mud Room Format?

[Holly Sommer <hsommer#micro,ti.com>]

On Wed, 19 Aug 1998, plateau wrote:

> Okay, so I guess the format wouldn't encompass too much detail, but 
> still; has a "standard (global?) room format" already been done? 

There isn't a standard "format", but as you pointed out there are indeed 
standard "features."

> Is it 
> more popular to just write code to convert existing room formats (LPC, 
> Tiny, Diku, etc) to your own format (so you could use those snazzy 
> editors instead)? Or is it a complete waste of time?

IMO, unless you are dealing with converting stock areas between two stock 
MUDs (read: coders on either MUD haven't made any changes to any structs 
or objects), it's an increasingly wasted amount of time. Even between 
revisions of the same server/mudlib, you will have incompatabilities 
where data will be lost or misinterpreted - and that's on the same MUD!

Diversity is a good thing... it lets us express ourselves exactly as we 
intend to... but it also makes it difficult to express our own 
colloquialisms in someone else's vernacular.

-Holly