[MUD-Dev] Re: PDMud (was Re: Bruce Sterling on Virtual Community goals)

[Petri Virkkula <pvirkkul#iki,fi>]

>>>>> "JCL" == J C Lawrence <claw#kanga,nu> writes:

JCL> This is a myth originated by partially competant authors and users of
JCL> softcode servers.  It is a very long way from the truth.  Go have a
JCL> look at properly (ie efficiently) constructed and written softcode
JCL> based MUDs (ColdX and BatMUD are good starters).  Also look at the
JCL> (very few) stats available from Marcus Ranum

	I would not call BatMUD efficiently coded but you are right
	(IMHO) that a softcode system can handle enough
	players. However most of BatMUD's performance comes from a
	dedicated and fast hardware.

	As people are planning a new MUD, IMHO they should think what
	kind of system it will be running, ie. make a design decision
	whether the MUD should try to keep its resourse usage low in
	case of non-dedicated machine(s) or try to make it to as fast as
	possible in case of a dedicated machine(s) (or something
	between those two choices). It is too difficult to change that
	kind of design decisions afterwards, atleast my experience
	with BatMUD indicate so.

	I have written a document (though it is not finished yet) how
	to make LPMud game driver multithreaded and/or distributed. It
	is located at
	<URL:http://www.iki.fi/pvirkkul/pubs/MUD/mt-lpmud.html> if
	you are interested in reading it.


	Petri