This Mudlib is being written to fill a certain gap that exists in the
LPmud world today.  At this point there is no recognized standard as far
as native 3.0 mudlibs go.  There is the TMI mudlib for MudOS, Discworld for
3.1.2 (although it needs patches), the CD mudlib for the CD driver,
and mudlib.n for 3.1.2.  None of these is a viable option to someone who
wants to setup a mud of their own, unless they want it to be obvious
what its origins are.  The other problem that exists is that none of
these mudlibs are very easy to understand.  CD is reasonably well
documented, but it takes even an experienced admin anywhere from 3 to
5 hours to setup.  TMI is largely incomplete, and badly documented,
and DW is coded in such a way as to make it difficult to change.  It
isn't necessary to even mention mudlib.n.

Given that these shortcomings exist, this mudlib is an attempt to
fill the needs we've listed.  It will be well documented, in fact
things will be documented BEFORE they are written, so that the
documentation should be complete.  The structure of the mudlib will be
relatively simple compared to the other 3.0 mudlibs that have been
mentioned, and it will be very easy to setup.

We've chosen to use the MudOS gamedriver (based on LPmud 3.1.2) since
1) it compiles and runs without changes on a larger number of platforms
than the other drivers, and 2) it has several features of which we wish to
take advantage.

Some additional ideas that we are going to work on with this mudlib
include an exploration of efficient ways to handle races, using
the new mapping data type to store object attributes, instead of
the usual "accessor method" approach, and intelligent use of inheritance
to provide good abstraction and reuse of code.  These ideas will be
explored further in other documents.

Sulam and Truilkan
23 July 1992
