<!-- MHonArc v2.4.4 --> <!--X-Subject: Re: [MUD-Dev] Attracting players --> <!--X-From-R13: Epnggre <fpnggreNguribegrk.pbz> --> <!--X-Date: Tue, 05 Oct 1999 16:17:16 -0700 --> <!--X-Message-Id: 37F9C835.1ABEED67#thevortex,com --> <!--X-Content-Type: text/plain --> <!--X-Head-End--> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"> <html> <head> <title>MUD-Dev message, Re: [MUD-Dev] Attracting players</title> <!-- meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow" --> <link rev="made" href="mailto:scatter#thevortex,com"> </head> <body background="/backgrounds/paperback.gif" bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000" link="#0000FF" alink="#FF0000" vlink="#006000"> <font size="+4" color="#804040"> <strong><em>MUD-Dev<br>mailing list archive</em></strong> </font> <br> [ <a href="../">Other Periods</a> | <a href="../../">Other mailing lists</a> | <a href="/search.php3">Search</a> ] <br clear=all><hr> <!--X-Body-Begin--> <!--X-User-Header--> <!--X-User-Header-End--> <!--X-TopPNI--> Date: [ <a href="msg00023.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00021.html">Next</a> ] Thread: [ <a href="msg00048.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00000.html">Next</a> ] Index: [ <A HREF="author.html#00022">Author</A> | <A HREF="#00022">Date</A> | <A HREF="thread.html#00022">Thread</A> ] <!--X-TopPNI-End--> <!--X-MsgBody--> <!--X-Subject-Header-Begin--> <H1>Re: [MUD-Dev] Attracting players</H1> <HR> <!--X-Subject-Header-End--> <!--X-Head-of-Message--> <UL> <LI><em>To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI> <LI><em>Subject</em>: Re: [MUD-Dev] Attracting players</LI> <LI><em>From</em>: Scatter <<A HREF="mailto:scatter#thevortex,com">scatter#thevortex,com</A>></LI> <LI><em>Date</em>: Tue, 05 Oct 1999 10:43:17 +0100</LI> <LI><em>Reply-To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI> <LI><em>Sender</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev-admin#kanga,nu">mud-dev-admin#kanga,nu</A></LI> </UL> <!--X-Head-of-Message-End--> <!--X-Head-Body-Sep-Begin--> <HR> <!--X-Head-Body-Sep-End--> <!--X-Body-of-Message--> <PRE> Laurel Fan <lf25+@andrew.cmu.edu> wrote >Matthew Mihaly#best,com wrote: >> Hmm, I wasn't aware it was possible for a server to determine if a >> player's client can decode colour. How is this done? I do it through telnet protocol since that's the method to connect to my mud. Telnet protocol supports a number of sub-option negotiations, one of which is terminal type (RFC 1091 I think). Basically, the server requests terminal type negotiation and the client responds with its primary terminal emulation - e.g. "VT100" - if the server is not happy with that, it asks again and the client reponds with another type that it supports - e.g. "VT220" and so forth. Eventually either the server gets the option it wants "ansi" usually, where colour is concerned, or it receives the same option twice from the client. When the latter occurs it means the client has run out of options. If the server continues to ask, the client will start its list again, allowing the server to pick a "second best" choice from the list. I know far more than I ever wanted to about this because MudOS always blindly accepts the first terminal type offered, so in order to actively negotiate ansi for our colour login screen I had to hand-crank the process. My login sequence tries to negotiate "ansi" and if that fails, tries for "vt100" and if that fails it will use the clients primary emulation. >If there is a way to this automatically, someone's probably going >to write a client that doesn't support it. You could ask them >before the login screen (obviously, the question is not in color), >like some diku derivative codebase (smaug? circle?) does. Yes, there are cases where the client doesn't support the telnet negotiation. For example GMud is a common mud client that doesn't do terminal type negotiation at all. In this case my login process waits for a specified period (a 5 second delay) and if no answering negotiation has occurred, it defaults to a specified type. Theoretically we should default to "dumb" (i.e. straight 7-bit ASCII) when negotiation fails completely. After all you don't know whether the client can understand the escape codes, so in theory you shouldn't send them. However, I default to "ansi" when no negotiation occurs for the following reasons: 1) I've never encountered a true telnet client that won't do terminal type negotiation. Hell, even the braindead telnet that ships with Win95 will negotiate correctly. In my experience it is exclusively mud clients that don't tend to support negotiation. 2) Many mud clients that don't support terminal type negotiation do support ansi colour. Hence the reasoning goes that if no negotiation occurs, the client is almost certainly a mud client rather than a telnet program, and is therefore likely to support ansi colour. The login screen is colour only if: - the server successfully negotiated "ansi" - the client didn't negotiate so the server defaulted to "ansi" All other circumstances get a plain text login screen. So far this scheme seems to work fine and keep everyone happy. The only problem encountered is with ZMud, this client seems to be broken and always negotiates "vt100" even when specifically set to "ansi" - this means ZMud users always get plain text even though the client supports ansi colour. Those of our users who use ZMud get around it using an option to turn off telnet protocol, which makes the server default to ansi. -- Scatter ///\oo/\\\ _______________________________________________ MUD-Dev maillist - MUD-Dev#kanga,nu <A HREF="http://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev">http://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev</A> </PRE> <!--X-Body-of-Message-End--> <!--X-MsgBody-End--> <!--X-Follow-Ups--> <HR> <!--X-Follow-Ups-End--> <!--X-References--> <!--X-References-End--> <!--X-BotPNI--> <UL> <LI>Prev by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00023.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Battle Systems</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00021.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] ADMIN: Explanation of DevMUD vs MUD-Dev and a minor note</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Prev by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00048.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Attracting players</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00000.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Battle Systems</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Index(es): <UL> <LI><A HREF="index.html#00022"><STRONG>Date</STRONG></A></LI> <LI><A HREF="thread.html#00022"><STRONG>Thread</STRONG></A></LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> <!--X-BotPNI-End--> <!--X-User-Footer--> <!--X-User-Footer-End--> <ul><li>Thread context: <BLOCKQUOTE><UL> <LI><STRONG>Re: [MUD-Dev] Attracting players</STRONG>, <EM>(continued)</EM> <ul compact> <ul compact> <ul compact> <LI><strong><A NAME="00056" HREF="msg00056.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Attracting players</A></strong>, Greg Miller <a href="mailto:gmiller#classic-games,com">gmiller#classic-games,com</a>, Thu 14 Oct 1999, 18:10 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00079" HREF="msg00079.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Attracting players</A></strong>, Caliban Tiresias Darklock <a href="mailto:caliban#darklock,com">caliban#darklock,com</a>, Fri 15 Oct 1999, 21:09 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00080" HREF="msg00080.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Attracting players</A></strong>, Greg Miller <a href="mailto:gmiller#classic-games,com">gmiller#classic-games,com</a>, Fri 15 Oct 1999, 22:25 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> </LI> </ul> <LI><strong><A NAME="00048" HREF="msg00048.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Attracting players</A></strong>, Greg Miller <a href="mailto:gmiller#classic-games,com">gmiller#classic-games,com</a>, Thu 14 Oct 1999, 18:07 GMT </LI> </ul> <LI><strong><A NAME="00022" HREF="msg00022.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Attracting players</A></strong>, Scatter <a href="mailto:scatter#thevortex,com">scatter#thevortex,com</a>, Tue 05 Oct 1999, 23:17 GMT </LI> </ul> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00000" HREF="msg00000.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Battle Systems</A></strong>, Ben Greear <a href="mailto:greear#cyberhighway,net">greear#cyberhighway,net</a>, Mon 04 Oct 1999, 06:03 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00003" HREF="msg00003.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Battle Systems</A></strong>, Matthew Mihaly <a href="mailto:diablo#best,com">diablo#best,com</a>, Mon 04 Oct 1999, 18:54 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00013" HREF="msg00013.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Battle Systems</A></strong>, Richard Ross <a href="mailto:rross#rross,eurobell.co.uk">rross#rross,eurobell.co.uk</a>, Mon 04 Oct 1999, 21:56 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00019" HREF="msg00019.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Battle Systems</A></strong>, Matthew Mihaly <a href="mailto:diablo#best,com">diablo#best,com</a>, Tue 05 Oct 1999, 04:19 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL></BLOCKQUOTE> </ul> <hr> <center> [ <a href="../">Other Periods</a> | <a href="../../">Other mailing lists</a> | <a href="/search.php3">Search</a> ] </center> <hr> </body> </html>