09 Sep, 2009, Wulfen wrote in the 1st comment:
Votes: 0
Hello, I go by Wulfen in many muds, but you guys can call me Zach. I am currently seeking to learn how to code in C or C++ for muds. I know some people love teaching aspiring coders, I am simply looking for one of those people. My experience is limited to some VB, which won't do me much good I know. I can move around shells pretty comfortably though. I learn best through interaction, so please don't tell me to go to a site, or buy a book, if I knew that I learned best by doing that, I would have definitely done it by now.
If your interested in doing a little teaching, send me a pm through here and we'll talk, thanks!
~Zach~
09 Sep, 2009, David Haley wrote in the 2nd comment:
Votes: 0
Do you have more specific questions? You've already ruled out the most common avenues of helping new people. :wink:
09 Sep, 2009, Wulfen wrote in the 3rd comment:
Votes: 0
Well, I could honestly ask a million questions and have more to ponder, and most of them would start with "What does…" and end with "do?". I'm quite afraid I'd get banned from mudbytes if I tried to ask all my "What does" questions though….
09 Sep, 2009, David Haley wrote in the 4th comment:
Votes: 0
Well, why don't you start with a few of the most pressing ones then, and we'll work from there. You don't have to ask all million of them right now. :smile:
09 Sep, 2009, Kayle wrote in the 5th comment:
Votes: 0
The key to understanding things is to tinker.

Grab a base and play with things in it. As you break things, ask for help. It's how a lot of people in the community learned to do things.
09 Sep, 2009, Wulfen wrote in the 6th comment:
Votes: 0
ok, I guess my first question I would ask is, what codebase should I start with? I currently have a SW:Fote2.1 up, is that good?
09 Sep, 2009, Kayle wrote in the 7th comment:
Votes: 0
It depends on the kind of mud you're looking to start. Are you looking for a more Fantasy-ish environment? Or are you looking for a more Sci-Fi-ish environment?
09 Sep, 2009, Wulfen wrote in the 8th comment:
Votes: 0
Sci-Fi is alright with me. I've always wanted to code for a futuristic kind of mud
10 Sep, 2009, Ssolvarain wrote in the 9th comment:
Votes: 0
Sci-fi!

You'd better learn to code. I want to play a non-themed sci-fi mud -.-
10 Sep, 2009, JohnnyStarr wrote in the 10th comment:
Votes: 0
Personally, I prefer ROM based muds. For a beginner QuickMud has some stuff built in that might
make your life easier such as: color, a note board system, copy over, and OLC.
I started out with one and have learned a lot. SMAUG is good (so I hear) if your wanting something
pre-built, but if you are leaning towards sci-fi SWR might be a good fit, I'm picky, so I prefer ROM
because it is less dense than SMAUG, and therefore easier for me to make my own game logic.

If it's ANSI C you're going to use, go buy… j/k, but seriously you cant expect to learn from a forum (alone). David and other pros like Elanthis and Davion to name a few will be able to answer anything complex, but a book will answer the basics, which you need to learn to understand anything else.

Kayle said:
The key to understanding things is to tinker.


I agree, it's one thing to learn C, it's another to learn how to develop a MUD, especially an existing codebase with 40k + lines of code :wink:
10 Sep, 2009, Xrakisis wrote in the 11th comment:
Votes: 0
if your gonna go with rom, dont go with quickmud.. go with Eye of the Cylops. Its mine :) and HEAVILY modified/customized.

- I started it from quickmud, so your getting that and my stuff.
10 Sep, 2009, JohnnyStarr wrote in the 12th comment:
Votes: 0
Xrakisis said:
if your gonna go with rom, dont go with quickmud.. go with Eye of the Cylops. Its mine :) and HEAVILY modified/customized.
- I started it from quickmud, so your getting that and my stuff.

Well, that's cool, but do you think he needs a HEAVILY modifed base?
In other words, I think Zach might want to modify / customize it himself, if so, ROM is a good starting point :smile:
10 Sep, 2009, Orrin wrote in the 13th comment:
Votes: 0
If you prefer to learn by interaction rather than from a book you still might find a good book useful as a reference. You don't have to read it cover to cover, but instead you could dip into it as needed to supplement your own learning.

As to what codebase to use, well that depends on what your goals are. If you just want to learn then a codebase that you are familiar with already as a player and one that is popular and well supported would be a good choice. This site tends to have a bias towards DIKU derivative codebases in terms of the expertise of the posters, so if you plan on asking for help here it might make it easier if you are using a familiar codebase such as ROM or SMAUG.

Of course if you just want to learn how to write good C code then you should check out something like Coolmud :cool:
10 Sep, 2009, Davion wrote in the 14th comment:
Votes: 0
Quote
I'm quite afraid I'd get banned from mudbytes if I tried to ask all my "What does" questions though….


It takes a lot more then that to get banned from our place. Don't live in fear!
10 Sep, 2009, elanthis wrote in the 15th comment:
Votes: 0
Davion said:
It takes a lot more then that to get banned from our place. Don't live in fear!


Yeah, they still let me post here. Dumbasses.
10 Sep, 2009, Davion wrote in the 16th comment:
Votes: 0
You ain't such a bad guy, Elanthis! Despite what others say :P
10 Sep, 2009, Ssolvarain wrote in the 17th comment:
Votes: 0
Heh.
21 Sep, 2009, kiasyn wrote in the 18th comment:
Votes: 0
Wulfen said:
Well, I could honestly ask a million questions and have more to ponder, and most of them would start with "What does…" and end with "do?". I'm quite afraid I'd get banned from mudbytes if I tried to ask all my "What does" questions though….


what mud do you play

find their stock base and use that.
21 Sep, 2009, lnewlfe wrote in the 19th comment:
Votes: 0
Im in the same boat, somewhat…I took computer programing in highschool, but a while in the army has a way of dulling the brain cells……Regardless, to learn C/c++ programing from mudding for mudding is borderline impossible I would say w/o either some schooling or a very very good book, as muds are extreamly complicated, buggy creatures that have been modified over 15 yearsish by who knows how many coders, each with their own style and format….

Just my opinion.
21 Sep, 2009, David Haley wrote in the 20th comment:
Votes: 0
I learned a fair amount of C/C++ programming by tinkering with MUDs and other small programs I would write for practice. I agree that learning from books or taking classes is better, in that it is likely to be faster in the long run and teach you more properly, but I wouldn't say it's impossible to learn a fair bit from playing around with other code.

Now, I would underline that learning from MUDs is more likely to teach bad programming practice, because there are some strange things in some of the major codebases, or things that should definitely have been done differently.
0.0/23