Subject: Re: Mailing list creation

From: Adam Harris <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1993 22:44:01 -0700

> 	Anyway, I am curious about any MUDs in educational use (pref.
> MOOs).  I am more interested in programming, rather that virtual museums or
> lecturing via MUDs, for example.  I'd be interested in any comments on the
> matter.
> 

That feels like my take on it as well--only shamefacedly can I admit
that I learned what real OO is, not from C++, but from MOO.
Ah, what can be done to remedy that.

You mentioned that the "killer" is lack of visual interface.  From what
I can discern, most of the visual interface being programmed or planned
into hacked servers or clients relates precisely to stuff like virtual
museums (visual effects/pictures in a room), lecturing via MOO (Pavel's
AstroMOO (sp?)), or even maneuvering around in rooms (Matrix rooms, vector
rooms, boxology, etc).  The idea of graphics for design/programming
purposes never occurred to me before.

Is there any work being done to use graphics
as a tool for programming?   I don't have any specific ideas, but it
seems to me that the highly structured coding environment would be
ideal for using client-side graphics.
Does anyone know anything about this, or even have strong opinions 
on the matter?

-Adam

..................................................................
Adam Harris                                 [email-masked]
Univ. of Chicago, CS Dept. Tech. Typesetter         (312) 772-6664
Onshore Techie Consultant, VCS Chicago member
..................................................................

---

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1993 07:16:46 -0700

> as a tool for programming?

Yes.  Adam Skwersky and I have a Macintosh client designed to make programming
easier almost ready for brave alpha testers.  Send email to [email-masked]
and [email-masked] if you'd like to give it a try  (should be
ready in 2-3 weeks.)

It doesn't do much that mud.el users don't already enjoy... but it's a
big step up from raw telnet!  Features include:

-- help pops up in a separate window
-- object browser that shows you all of an object's verbs and properties.
	Double-click on a verb or property to edit it.  Pull-down menu
	to climb the hierarchy and look at the parent object
-- WYSIWYG editing of verbs and properties.  Check boxes to change
	permissions on your verb or property.

We're trying to keep it simple for now, but ideas for extensions will
certainly be appreciated.

-- Amy