Proposal - PBM Writing System From: rwallace@cs.tcd.ie (Russell Wallace) Date: Wed, 02 Feb 1994 18:16:47 +0000 I've got a vague idea for a PBM writing system that I might perhaps implement at some stage. The idea is that the system would allow you to write PBM games in a special-purpose language, hopefully much more quickly than they could be written in a general-purpose language like C. (Somewhat similar idea to an adventure writing system, a number of successful adventure writing systems being currently available.) Possible advantages would be: 1. The system would provide all the boring code for processing player input, keeping track of email addresses, generating reports and so on, that you need to write yourself if you're doing it in C. 2. The special purpose language (I haven't got a detailed spec yet, but it would treat the universe as a collection of objects with attributes, and rules to determine how they interact) would make it much quicker and easier to write and modify a game, than using a conventional programming language. 3. The system could be used by people who have no programming experience. Possible disadvantages would be: 1. A game written using the system would be less efficient than one handcoded in C, and therefore require heftier hardware. Possible memory requirements might be 2 to 4 megabytes for a simple-to-medium game and a good deal more for a very complex game. Turn processing times might run from minutes to hours. (Not a fatal disadvantage for PBM.) 2. There would be much less freedom of choice in how things are done. All the PBM games I can think of offhand, at least 95% of the rules could be implemented in the system, but things like report formats would be restricted to be done in a certain way; an Olympia/Atlantis style object numbering system would probably be imposed, for example. (Though this would have a slight advantage in that people playing more than one game with the system would have to waste less time coping with ideosyncracies in administrative details.) So, my questions: 1. Would people out there use such a system if it were available? 2. Can you think of any advantages or disadvantages I haven't thought of? 3. I'd like to hear any ideas people have concerning how it should be done. -- "To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem" Russell Wallace, Trinity College, Dublin rwallace@cs.tcd.ie Referenced By Up