Endless Swarm of Merchants!?

[Trinitis]

Yeesh, you're looking into starting a MUD and that is the grasp you have on how they work?

Note I did say "basically".

Yes, I know they can and are more complex. But at their root, they are a large collection of text files.

At least, in the program we were checking out. And I assume, thats how most of them work, as it's much easier and much more clean then one would think.

[g++]

Your operating system is also technically "A collection of text files" the lines of text in gemstone have attributes and reactions to the hundreds of different actions you can perform on them. The system is highly object oriented. To insinuate you could replicate it typing into wordpad is a little naive.

[Trinitis]

Your operating system is also technically "A collection of text files" the lines of text in gemstone have attributes and reactions to the hundreds of different actions you can perform on them. The system is highly object oriented. To insinuate you could replicate it typing into wordpad is a little naive.

Yet every single item is a text file. Which assists in my entire point in this thread. Since they are already editing/making a new text file when they are altering, it's not hard to edit another text file stating they did X work for this person on X date. My guess is, they already do.

[diethx]

(bunch of posts)

Are you sure you don't have a mullet?

[Celephais]

Yet every single item is a text file. Which assists in my entire point in this thread. Since they are already editing/making a new text file when they are altering, it's not hard to edit another text file stating they did X work for this person on X date. My guess is, they already do.

... wow really? Your grasp of how programs work is terrible. Each item isn't its own file, gemstone might be terribly programmed (by the way they react to some changes being so difficult), but there is no way they have a seperate file for each item. Likely all of the items are stored in a database (flat file database or not), if this file is compressed it won't be human readable in "file format". Yes, it shouldn't be difficult to add a "merchant work notes" section to the data file for characters, but your concept of a text file or seperate programs is rather messed up. The GMs have special commands they enter into the game to do most of the work you see being done (alterations for example), so the rare times you see them say something really messed up is just them accidently hitting ' before they type in the command.

[Trinitis]

... wow really? Your grasp of how programs work is terrible. Each item isn't its own file, gemstone might be terribly programmed (by the way they react to some changes being so difficult), but there is no way they have a seperate file for each item. Likely all of the items are stored in a database (flat file database or not), if this file is compressed it won't be human readable in "file format". Yes, it shouldn't be difficult to add a "merchant work notes" section to the data file for characters, but your concept of a text file or seperate programs is rather messed up.

Research muds, then come back to this thread.

The GMs have special commands they enter into the game to do most of the work you see being done (alterations for example), so the rare times you see them say something really messed up is just them accidently hitting ' before they type in the command.

Yes, they most likely have commands that allow them to edit the files that the items are stored in. Could I be wrong on how GSL works or how the data is stored? Maybe. But the fact remains that the program that my friend researched, and the multiple mud software I've poked around with all stored each and every item in a different text file.

Example : A text file for a set of forest green brig. All FGB links to this text file. All the info on a basic set of FGB is stored in this text file. If I was to change that brig to "a set of ugly ass brig", the stats stay the same, but a new text file is made for "a set of ugly ass brig".

[Stanley Burrell]

<<file>>

Did anybody on-site staff ever disclose how much room the DATs collectively take up? Or how many user accounts (active + inactive) there are?

I have a feeling the file size is either much smaller or much larger than I think it is.

GemStone is ... 1 gigabyte flat! That's my own undoubtedly stupid guesstimate

[CrystalTears]

the multiple mud software I've poked around with all stored each and every item in a different text file

You don't really believe GS works this way, do you? You really think they're going to have a file for EVERY item in the game? There's no fucking way.

The one time I helped a friend with a MUD, we never had to create files for items. They were all commands to create, edit and destroy items.

Having to create files for items seems like a seriously rudimentary system. GS may not be state of the art but I seriously doubt it revolves around text files.

[Celephais]

Trinitis must be really creative, because there is no way he's been asked to help with the technical side of his friends new MUD. It seems pretty clear to me that his friend was just dumbing down how it works in order to explain it to Trinitis. The overhead of using the filesystem as a database would be ridiculous. I don't suspect they've got it properly into a single relational DB, but I don't think they'd crutch themselves on an OS like that.