Subject: Mr. Spell

From: Paul Herbert Reavis <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1993 11:04:24 -0700

Someone pointed this out to me awhile back, and I checked the new database
to see if it was still there....

Object #34 in LambdaCore, Mr. Spell, is quite a big little guy. I couldn't
find any of the recommended help (help spelling and help @spell) and
couldn't find any way to use him (though admittedly I didn't try too
hard). So, as my friend recommended, I deleted him. @recycle doesn't work
(runs out of ticks), so I had to ;recycle(#34) him. And the database went from

	1661592 Apr 26 01:05 NewMoo.db

to
	1075029 Apr 26 10:55 NewMoo.db.new

A significant decrease in size (600k or so less, a 37% decrease (rough)), no?

Thus, I wondered:

	a) If he's there by mistake (if an automatic coremaker is being used,
		the @recycle problem might prevent his deletion)
	b) If he's supposed to be there, is it really worth the huge size?
	c) are there any other bloated objects lying around?

Input, please.

paul.

{{{{{{{{{{}}}}}}}}{}{}}}}}}}}}}}}}}{}{}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}{}{}}}}{{{{{{{{{{{{}

    	pure form
    	real gone
	like wild
	good vibes
	everything is cool
	there are these forms i like to watch
	there are these shapes that take to me
	everything is cool
		
					-pylon

---

From: Judy Anderson <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1993 11:53:46 -0700

Oops.

Mr.Spell has been in the core and out of it...  The verbs that are
used with him are currently residing on #3133 at LambdaMOO, where they
migrated during one of his "out of the core" spates.  They never got
moved back to $player (well, $builder would be more appropriate)
because some of us are bozos.  I noticed this fact not too long ago,
but then forgot to do anything about it.

Now, of course, the core release has been made, so it'll be a while
til the verbs get back in the core.

BTW, when I recycled $spell out of my DB I got rid of the properties
by hand and then used @recycle.  You can fill the hole in your DB with
renumber(create(#1)); reset_max_object(), by the way.

Whether or not Mr. Spell is worth the huge size is for you to decide.

Hmm, it just occurred to me that now that features are in the core,
all of the Mr. Spell verbs could be put on a feature object, which
would be helpful to those LambdaCore recipients who wish to remove it,
so they wouldn't have to hunt down all the individual verbs to remove.

---

From: Paul Herbert Reavis <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1993 12:47:03 -0700

> so they wouldn't have to hunt down all the individual verbs to remove.

The spelling may or may not be useful to some people; I personally prefer
the space, but would understand if it was left in, since such a thing
wouldn't be much fun to program. However, the first time Mr. Spell and I
met, I tried @describe #34. on him, with the probably obvious dismaying
results. But watching the screens and screens of properties go by gives
you at least some idea of what's in the thing, and it seemed to me that
there was an awful lot of probably lambdamoo-specific stuff. Leaving a
speller in is one thing, but a speller with a bunch of words you'll never
use is another. 

Comments?

paul.

{{{{{{{{{{}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}{{{{{{{{{{{}}}}}

	You like to think that you're an intellectual. But you're just 
	another boring bisexual. "I met Andy Warhol at a really chic party!" 
	Blow it out your hairdo, 'cuz you work at Hardees. Eighty pounds of 
	makeup on your art school skin, eighty points of I.Q. located within. 
	You know what you are? You're a bunch of artfags. 

	Choke on this, you danceateria types...

						-the dead milkmen

---

From: Judy Anderson <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1993 12:58:27 -0700

I didn't think that Mr. Spell had LambdaMOO specific stuff in it; I
thought it was just /usr/dict/words off some random unix machine.
Certainly any dictionary contains words that any individual will never
use.  The point of dictionaries is that they contain a superset of all
the words that individuals use, or, the union of all people's
vocabularies.

---

From: Paul Herbert Reavis <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1993 13:00:03 -0700

> the words that individuals use, or, the union of all people's

I agree; remember that I'm speaking mostly in ignorance from a single
glance over the entries, I really have no idea. Again, this is a hefty
thing to add in without a whole lot of necessity... Need a modular core,
really, I guess, so things like this can easily be patched in or left out
of a database. At present, good documentation of the core with a listing
of the larger objects and simple instructions on paring the thing down
even further would be great- I for one plan on sifting through each item;
my account space is a premium and every little bit counts.

paul.

						-the dead milkmen

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From: Mike Prudence <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1993 02:32:36 -0700

Hi all,

Can someone explain to me, in small, easy to understand words, why one
would want a spell checker imbedded in one's MOO ?

Cheers,

Mike/blip

[email-masked]                   "Only those who attempt the absurd will 
                                                     achieve the impossible."

---

From: Judy Anderson <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1993 09:23:04 -0700

From: Mike Prudence <[email-masked]>

Because misspelled descriptions and messages are the scourge of the
galaxy, and having easy access to a spell checker might help people
correct their typos.

Really, I find misspelled words reach up and hit me over the head with
a hammer, really jarring me out of whatever suspension of disbelief I
might have achieved.  I understand that this internalization of the
written language at such a low level doesn't happen to everyone, which
is why there are some people who can't spell well, and don't notice
when words are misspelled.