So you want to become a MOO1 programmer? Run, do not walk, to the LambdaMOO ftp site and get the latest text version of the LambdaMOO Programmer’s Manual. You will need to continually reference this book. If you want to print it out, get the postscript version, but I also recommend keeping the text version on your personal computer so that you can refer to it and do searches on it. I’m only going to talk about the basics of MOO programming here. You'll need the official manual as a reference, and you should read through it at least once.
Inside the MOO, help programming and help prog-index will give you a list of topics that might interest you. The command @classes utilities will give you a list of all the built-in utility objects available for programming. There’s a special discussion group for programmers on Valhalla called *Universe.2
- Becoming a Programmer
- In order to become a programmer, you need to talk to a friendly wizard. Most likely, you will be given a new player to use as a programmer, and you will keep your current player so that you can use it as a guinea pig for your new creations.
- Programming: Properties
- You’re already quite familiar with properties. The messages you’ve been setting are properties, as is your name and your description. Most of the properties you’ve dealt with so far have been string properties. There are four basic kinds of properties in MOO.
- Programming: Verbs
- Verbs are the ‘commands’ of the MOO. You’ve been using verbs left and right. When you ‘look’ or ‘go’, when you talk, emote, page, or whisper, you’re using verbs.
- Editing Properties and Verbs
- Editing Properties and Verbs in Programming
- The Generic Swinging Weapon
- Even though I’m going to leave the majority of programming instruction to the official manual, I’m a firm believer that you can never have too many examples. This is Valhalla. Lots of gods with short tempers. We will have swords, staves, and hammers coming out of (and into) our ears. Let's make a generic swinging weapon to base them all on.
- Forks and Tasks
- Let's go back to Thor's hammer. We're not really letting him throw his hammer. We just tell everybody he threw it, which is almost the same thing. But we can also have the hammer actually be thrown, and then return after a short bit of time. We’ll re-write throw so that when Thor throws his hammer, it waits a bit at the destination, and then sails through the air back into his hand.
- Using Files
- Using Files in Programming
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