Information AboutMoo |
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A MOO ('' MUD Object Oriented '') is a type of MUD and is a text-based online virtual reality system to which multiple users are connected at the same time. The term MOO is used in two distinct, but related, senses. One is to refer to those programs descended from the original MOO server, and the other is to refer to any MUD that uses object oriented techniques to organize its database of objects, particularily if it does so in a similar fashion to the original MOO or its derivatives. Most of this article refers the original MOO and its direct descendants, but see Non-Descendant MOOs for a list of MOOs outside of that family. The original MOO server was authored by Stephen White, with later development and maintenance from LambdaMOO administrator, and former Xerox PARC employee, Pavel Curtis. One of the most distinguishing features of a MOO is that its users can perform Object Oriented programming within the server, ultimately expanding and changing how the Server behaves to everyone. Examples of such changes include authoring new rooms and objects, creating new Generic objects for others to use, and changing the way the MOO interface operates. The programming language used for extension is the MOO Programming Language , and many MOOs feature convenient libraries of ''verbs'' that can be used by programmers in their coding known as ''Utilities''. The MOO programming language is a Domain-specific Programming Language . BACKGROUND MOOs are network accessible, multi-user, programmable, interactive systems well-suited to the construction of text-based adventure games, conferencing systems, and other collaborative software. Their most common use, however, is as multi-participant, low-bandwidth Virtual Realities . They are often used in academic environments for Distance Education or collaboration such as Diversity University ; but others are primarily social in nature, or used for Role-playing Games (RPGs), or simply take advantage of the programming possibilities. Most commonly, MOOs are connected to by users using a Client which speaks the Telnet protocol, which provides a stay-alive connection with the host, to relay output and send commands. Some however have developed web interfaces, or other such methods; however this commonly limits interaction that the user can have, usually to the point they have no interaction, but instead can browse objects and discover typical information. Developments in cross-MOO networking have also lead to the creation of SunNET, a hubless network allowing cross-MOO communication and add extra possibilities to cross-MOO development, including networked Channels . Every MOO stores the content and state of all its objects within an Object Database , and this is loaded by the MOOs server should the MOO need to be restarted. In this way, the objects created in a MOO last until they are deliberately destroyed, and are not lost when the computer hosting the MOO is reset. New MOOs have to choose a starting database from which to set their MOO up, or they can use a very minimal one which contains only the necessary objects to start a MOO. There are a handful of such MOO "core" databases which serve as foundations of code and utilities from which to start your MOO, including LambdaCore (from LambdaMOO ), MinimalDB (considered the minimum necessary code and utilities to work usefully in a MOO), JHCore (from Jay's House Moo ), and EnCore (from LinguaMOO ). Every object in the MOO is appointed a number, prefixed with a ''#'', and all objects are referred to by this reference, as well as their name when the user is in the objects presence. Administrators, also known as ''Wizards'', who are able to manage the MOO, and assign certain global names to these objects, which are prefixed with ''$'', a process known as ''corifying''. They also feature parenting systems, and every object will have a parent, commonly eventually leading to ''Root Class'', otherwise known as #1. #0 is also reserved as a special system object which is responsible for managing the list of global names, incoming network connections, and other information related to the operation of the system. HISTORY MOO, along with all of its nephews, started out with Text Based Adventure Game s. With the advent of the internet, MUD was formed as a networked version of one of those games. Eventually it developed into a tree of different types of MUD, with MOO becoming one of them. Stephen White (also known by the handles "Ghondahrl" and "ghond") wrote the first version of the MOO server, which was released on May 2, 1990, and used for the operation of a server called " AlphaMOO ". Pavel Curtis, an employee of Xerox PARC and also known by his handles "Lambda", and "Haakon", took the basic design, language, and code, fixed bugs and added features to release the first version, called "LambdaMOO" on October 30th, 1990. According to Jill Serpentelli in her paper Conversational Structure and Personality Correlates of Electronic Communication : :Curtis went on to explain how the transition occurred from AlphaMOO to LambdaMOO . After fixing bugs in the system, rewriting some of the code, adding more programming capability, and writing documentation, he had created what he termed "a truly separate entity" from the original AlphaMOO. He dubbed this new system LambdaMOO, after one of his names on the system and, according to Curtis, "because it's a key word in some of the other non-mud research that I do." The new system was announced as open for public access on UseNet (a world-wide bulletin board system) in February of 1991 (Curtis, personal communication). MOO was originally developed as a MUD server in the same general style (sharing much of the command syntax and community conventions) as TinyMUD . There is currently one distribution of the MOO server code. It is sometimes called the LambdaMOO server, indicating the close historical and continuing association of the MOO server code with the first public MOO, LambdaMOO, which is still popular today. It is this LambdaMOO version of MOO that gained popularity in the early 90s, and it remains the only major distribution of MOO. Pavel Curtis continued to maintain the server for several years. Other early contributors to the LambdaMOO server included users Tim Allen ("Gemba"), "Gary_Severn", Roger Crew ("Rog"), Judy Anderson ("yduJ"), and Erik Ostrom (known as "Joe Feedback"). Later, Erik Ostrom maintained the server, and the server is now maintained by Ben Jackson and Jay Carlson and has a LambdaMOO SourceForge.net project. NON-DESCENDANT MOOS Some servers use MOO style object oriented characteristics without being descended from the original MOO server, in the sense that they use little or none of that server's source code and use internal languages that are more or less incompatible with the MOO Programming Language . None of them have attained the popularity of LambdaMOO or its relatives.
One unusual MOO with no real relationship to the original MOO is called mooix . mooix is unique among MUDs in that it uses the underlying UNIX operating system to handle all of the Multitasking and Networking issues. Several unique side effects result from this, one of which is that the MOO can be programmed in any language. mooix was written after a failed attempt by Joey Hess to write a MOO entirely in Perl, called perlmoo . There are a number of MOOs written in Python, including POO , MOOP , and playsh . MOO ACCESS Participants (usually referred to as users) connect to a MOO using Telnet or some other, more specialized, client program. Upon connection, they are usually presented with a welcome message explaining how to either create a new character or connect to an existing one. Having connected to a character, users then give one-line commands that are parsed and interpreted by the MOO as appropriate. Such commands may cause changes in the virtual reality, such as the location of a character, or may simply report on the current state of that reality, such as the appearance of some object. The job of interpreting those commands is shared between the two major components in the MOO system: the server and the database. The server is a program, written in a standard programming language, that manages the network connections, maintains queues of commands and other tasks to be executed, controls all access to the database, and executes other programs written in the MOO Programming Language . The database contains representations of all the objects in the virtual reality, including the MOO programs that the server executes to give those objects their specific behaviours. Almost every command is parsed by the server into a call on a MOO procedure, or verb, which actually does the work. Thus, programming in the MOO programming language is a central part of making non-trivial extensions to the database and hence the Virtual Reality . MOO ADMINISTRATION All MOOs provide a flag called ''Wizard''; when set on a player, the player gains the ability to view and modify nearly everything in the MOOs database. Such players are called Wizards, and usually form the basis for MOO administration. Wizards are able to restrict access to the MOO, as well as make news postings and monitor logs. Wizard permissions are needed for modification and even execution of verbs and properties for which the user does not own, or is not publically readable/writable. All verbs and properties within objects have the appropriate flags, with the user can change to determine its current state. They are also able to assign global names to any object. OUTLINE OF WELL-KNOWN MOOS
SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
Programming
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