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1) Is there an open mud that is run by the implementor of DoT? If so, I'd like to go try it out. I checked out the web site for DoT, but I didn't find this information clearly marked.
As Nick said, I am involved with a number of the DOT based muds. The public muds I primarily use for development are Blood Moon and Stormbringer. The other muds I log in from time to time to help out/answer questions etc.
I intentionally stopped running my own mud in order to focus on the development of the codebase which is what I enjoy doing.
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2) Yours is the first codebase I've seen that uses C++. In looking through the code, it seems like most of it is still C. Could you comment on which aspects of the game use C++ specific constructs so I can look at them? As an aside, I'm not an expert at either language.
It compiles with a C++ compiler, but I wouldn't go as far as calling it an object orientated codebase (from the sounds you may have been expecting that or C++ to be hugely different from Ansi C (depending on your experience with C++)). There are parts of the dawn code which are object orientated though, for example the tracks system is made up of an object which is the tracks in a room. One of the nice things it does which wouldn't work if it was ansi C is allocating memory to itself on an as needed basis.
ch->in_room->tracks->add_track(ch, door, TRACKTYPE_MOVE);
works and doesn't crash even if ch->in_room->tracks==NULL.
There are other changes that make use of features provided only in C++, char_data is a class within dawn, there is no send_to_char(), instead there are a number of member functions within the char_data class (used in the format ch->print())
Quoting a piece from chardata.h
void print(const char *buf);
void printbw(const char *buf);
void printf(const char *fmt, ...)
void printfbw(const char *fmt, ...)
void println(const char *buf);
void print_blank_lines(int blank_lines_to_print);
void printlnbw(const char *buf);
void printlnf(const char *fmt, ...)
void printlnfbw(const char *fmt, ...)
void wrap(const char *buf);
void wrapf(const char *fmt, ...)
void wrapln(const char *buf);
void wraplnf(const char *fmt, ...)
void titlebar(const char *header);
void titlebarf(const char *fmt, ...)
void olctitlebar(const char *header);
void olctitlebarf(const char *fmt, ...)
void print(int seconds, const char *buf);
void printf(int seconds, const char *fmt, ...)
void println(int seconds, const char *buf);
void printlnf(int seconds, const char *fmt, ...)
void sendpage(const char *txt);
The seconds parameter is a delay feature, ch->println(5,"Hello"); would send 'Hello' to ch in 5 seconds time.
The approach that I have taken when developing DoT has been that there is no point in doing something unless what you gain is worth the work. Converting DoT to be a totally Object Orientated codebase wouldn't be worth the effort. You would be better off writing a mud from scratch, since that is what you be basically doing. The C++ changes in dawn all relate to real development benefit or making use of a C++ feature for the learning benefits.
- Mike
Aka Kalahn