From: yiyabob@leland.Stanford.EDU (matthew ford)
Subject: Re: borg or robot players for MUD.
Summary: Robot player in use, question about UNIX process
Keywords: tintin bobmatic unix
Organization: DSG, Stanford University, CA 94305, USA
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 92 15:44:23 GMT

   There is one robot player I know of-- one I made!  His name is Bobmatic and
he can occasionally be found on Renegade Outpost-- louie.cc.utexas.edu 4000.
He is a fully automatic player run by TINTIN (with well over a hundred com
lines).  He responds to just about every social command directed at him, and
serves to amuse all players.  He also give real help to newbies, who, if they
take an oath of newbiehood in Bobmatic's presence, Bobmatic will bestow with
armor, bless, cure crit, food, a kiss, and so on.  Bobmatic will also taxi
any players to low-level areas if they follow him and say things like: 
Shire, please.  He casts refresh and remove poison, give out cookies and
jambalaya and other things, and is generally fun to have around.  He does not
really "play", however, though I guess i could have him do that-- get exp and
all... a player on Renegade supposedly has a very high-lev char that he leaves
on overnight to stomp around Thalos and kill everything he meets...

   This leads me to my related question for UNIX geniuses.  As i said, Bobmatic
runs through TINTIN on my college UNIX account.  I enter TINTIN, type one
command, and Bobmatic starts a session, logs himself into the game, and starts
playing.  I have two phone lines and two modem/computers in my house, so I can
log into my account again from another line and still mud, email, program, etc
while Bobmatic is on.  However, I don't like to tie up my other line so I want
to have Bobmatic running in his own active process while, using the same line,
I can have another fully active process in which i can do whatever else i need
to do.  This has proven difficult.
   I cannot suspend the tintin proc and then use bg to keep it rolling, because
on the job list it shows that the tintin proc is suspended (tty input).  In
other words, Bobmatic is frozen and does not respond to anything.  I have
similarly used the & symbol to start the tintin proc in the background from the
outset, with the same (tty input) result.
   I cannot access any windowing systems from my home modem hookup, as they are
all graphical based and need mouse control, etc.  (I log in through a Mac at
home.) 
   Basically, I'd love it if you could email me a solution.  Is there any way
to have two completely active procs going on a UNIX accout, just having one
not being looked at so that-- gasp-- I can even let it run without any live
contact from me whatsoever???  Can i log in, start the tintin, somehow quietly
bow out so that the program keeps on running, then log in a second time to do
my pedestrian stuff or just not log in again at all and turn off my much-used
Mac??  Please respond with ANY suggestions.
--yiyabob@leland.stanford.edu
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Matthew Ford:  founder of Yin, Yang, & Bob Games.  All opinions expressed in
this article are in absolute accord with the views of Yin, Yang, & Bob.