From: rg@trillian.informatik.uni-dortmund.de (Rudolf Gross)
Newsgroups: rec.games.mud.lp
Subject: A summary of the GD-discussion [a little longer, too]
Date: 15 Oct 1992 18:26:04 GMT
Organization: University of Dortmund, Germany
NNTP-Posting-Host: trillian

I've been listening to the GD discussion with greatest interest so
far. But in the last articles I got the impression that we get away
from the more important point: What is this discussion about ?

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think the main topics are (or should be):

	Which driver has got which advantages ?
	Who should choose which driver for his mud ?

I don't want to quote each and every statement, so I will try to sum
them up. If someone feels uncomfortable with my summary, feel free
to complain.


Statement: Amylaar's code is difficult to read.

My 2 cents worth: It might be true that his code is more 
	difficult to comprehend than the code of e.g. the
	CD-Driver. However, his	code is far fom being
	unreadable. Simple proof: At least three wizards in
	TUBMUD (simple students, no Doctors or "compiler gods")
	are absolutely capable of debugging and expanding the
	Amylaar driver.


Stat:	Amylaar's driver won't be maintained anymore, if he
	quits mudding. Therefore using his driver is risky.

M2cw:	Utter nonsense (see above). Everyone who knows him
	personally is slightly amused about the Idea of Amylaar
	quitting mudding :). Ok, it's possible, but quite
	unlikely. Even if he should, the other wizards would
	continue his work. In fact it's just the other way
	round (see down).


Stat:	Amylaar's driver is more efficient, more stable, more
	bugfree and more compatible than at least the CD driver,
	and it has got a petter performance.

M2cw:	Fact. Reimer Behrends has given enough evidence for it,
	and this statement hasn't been challenged from anyone
	in this discussion. JnA conceded, that Amylaar prob-
	ably is the most dedicated driver-specialist after
	Lars' retirement, and for his driver it pays off.


Stat:	Jacob Hallen and JnA claim: "It is as we say, and most
	experienced wizards are of the same opinion."

M2cw:	Doubtable. In fact that you aren't right, it is
	wrong. If you are right, it's irrelevant. I think it
	is wiser to PROVE your statements and don't rely on
	the the fact that other ones think what you think.
	By the way: How do you know that "most experienced
	wizards" are on your side ? In Germany this statement
	is probably wrong, since at least 2 MUDs converted
	from CD to Amylaar recently. I'd be more careful with that.


Conclusion: Every MUDgod has got to decide, which advantages
	are more important for him and his MUD. If you feel
	uncomfortable to debug and expand more difficult code, the
	CD driver (sorry, I don't know MudOS well enough to
	comment on it) or MudOS might be the wiser choice.
	However, Amylaar's driver has got such an amount of
	inherent improvements and advantages, that it might
	pay off to have a look at it. The long list of bug
	fixes and new features in the Amylaar driver prove,
	that his driver is being taken care of constantly,
	and though most of it has been done by one person
	(Amylaar himself), he seemed to have archieved a lot
	more than the whole CD cluster. (JnA: You said:
	"Someone should rewrite it (Amylaars code) smaller
	and more efficiently". First of all, noone except
	him did and his code's overall efficiency is much
	better. If I was in your position, I'd me a little
	more moderate). So I'd suggest to the other MUDgods:
	Have a look at the driver yourself. It need not, but
	it MIGHT prove beneficial for you, especially if
	you want a well-maintained, stable driver (especially
	in COMPAT_MODE), and don't want to meddle with the
	code itself too much.


One final word: I'm truly sorry that my posting turned into
a flame right at the end. But I'm rather annoyed by the
thought, that there now seem to be three and more versions
of drivers developing independently. Since Lars' retirement
noone is going to coordinate the vast amounts of improvements
which wizards develop independently. Since CD decided to
reject e.g. Amylaar's codes categorically (and sorry, I don't
believe at all that it's just because of the poor readability
of his code), the big LPmud family starts to break apart in
lots of small independent islands. Some may like this trend,
I'm not so sure that I don't.

					Rudi Gross