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definition language
- noun The language in which the database is written.
There are a number of discrete levels of complexity which this can take. Primitive
MUAs are hard-coded in a normal programming language such as
C or assembler;
others have some information kept externally in files, eg. room
descriptions; more sophisticated ones (like MUD1) have some
command information in these files; others allow all commands
to be defined externally; a few (like MUD2) store the
entire definition of every aspect of the game in these files - this puts them
back in the same position as the hard-coded games, except that the
definition language they use is specific to MUAs,
rather than to programming in general.
Strictly speaking, a definition language is the language in which the
basic set of rooms, objects and so on are written such that
substantially different game worlds can be modelled; it therefore can
include aspects of creation which are present in the
game itself. See MUDDL,
MUDDLE.
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