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MUDDLE
- noun A CAT for 'Multi-User Dungeon Definition LanguagE',
the definition language of MUD2. MUDDLE is a 'proper'
programming language, rather than the glorified table-lookup
system of MUDDL. It was specifically designed (by Richard
Bartle) to be used for writing MUAs, and as such comes with a
built-in mechanism to handle a class hierarchy. Its interpreter
was written in a hurry in Turbo Pascal, and was soon converted
to VAX Pascal; much later, it was transformed from that
(mostly via a translation program) into immensely confusing
C. However, since DB changes should no longer involve
changes to the interpreter itself, this will not be a great
problem until Bartle is hit by a fast-moving train. MUDDLE
comes replete with macro facilities, and is not split into
section. Currently, it has two significant limitations:
for speed, the class hierarchy is fixed at compile-time, so
although objects can be added to it, classes
cannot be removed or links in the hierarchy reassigned; there is no facility for
separate compilation, so if you change one line of one
component file, you have to recompile the lot. See function for
an example of a MUDDLE definition.
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