Frequently asked questions about the PennMUSH Server, post-pl10

Updated: January 15, 1998

0. What's the release history since pl10?
1. How do I ask for help with a problem?
2. How do I report a bug?
3. How do I request a new feature?
4. Where can I get more information about admin'ing and hacking MUSH?
5. Where can I hear about new releases?

-----------------------------

0. What's the release history since pl10?

PennMUSH pl10 is the last patchlevel of PennMUSH developed by Amberyl.
Amberyl handed over the maintenance, development, and support of
PennMUSH to Javelin/Paul (Alan Schwartz) after pl10.

The first two post-pl10 releases were termed the "dune-1" and "dune-2"
releases (in honor of DuneMUSH, where Alan did most of his development
work). Amberyl and Javelin agreed that it was silly to start a whole
new numbering scheme, so the next patchlevel released was pl11.

Javelin, along with the other two PennMUSH developers, T. Alexander
Popiel and Ralph Melton, made so many internal changes that it was
time for a new numbering scheme, and PennMUSH was advanced to 1.6.x.

Ralph Melton has since retired, and Thorvald Natvig took his place
on the devteam. He rewrote the command parser, and PennMUSH was
advanced to 1.7.x.


1. How do I ask for help with a problem?

Email to dunemush@pennmush.org
When asking for help, please be as specific as you can about the
problem. Include at least the following:
 - Version of PennMUSH including any official patches you've applied
 - Host machine brand (Sun, Dec, etc.), model (Sparcstation, etc.)
 - Operating system version (e.g., Ultrix 4.4)
 - Compiler used to compile (if a compilation problem)
 - A description of the problem: what you think it should be doing that
   it isn't.
 - If things were working, and you recently changed something and they're
   not working now, what did you change?

2. How do I report a bug?

Email to pennmush-bugs@pennmush.org
Include specific information as described in #3 above. If you know
what's causing the bug, or how to fix it, or if you have a patch for
the bug, send it along. If you don't, and the bug caused a crash with
a core dump, you can send along a stack trace (see #6 if you don't know
how to do this). 

Bugs are patched as quickly as possible. Patches for bugs are emailed
to the pennmush@pennmush.org mailing list (to subscribe,
email to listproc@pennmush.org, and have the message say
"subscribe pennmush YourNameHere") and are put on the pennmush ftp
site, in the /pub/PennMUSH/Source directory.

3. How do I request a new feature?

Email to dunemush@pennmush.org
No promises, but I try to put things onto my to-do list and get to
them w/in the next revision or two. I'll email you back either way. :)

If I don't think it belongs in the distribution, I'll ask you to contact
pennhack-volunteers@pennmush.org, a group of volunteer
hackers who will custom-hack for your MUSH. If you're sure that what
you need isn't of general interest, you can write to them directly.

4. Where can I get more information about admin'ing and hacking MUSH?

Read Javelin's God for PennMUSH Gods, loads of info about setting up
a MUSH, hacking source code, daily maintenance, and many tips from
other Gods!

By WWW: http://www.pennmush.org/~alansz/guide.html
By ftp: ftp.pennmush.org, /pub/PennMUSH/Guide

5. Where can I hear about new releases?

New releases of the PennMUSH code are announced on the PennMUSH
mailing list (see above) and rec.games.mud.{tiny,admin,announce}

Patches are only announced on the PennMUSH mailing list, and are put
on the ftp site.