[Coldstuff] Running Cold under MacOS X

[Bruce Mitchener]

Peter Bengtson wrote:
> No reply from anyone? Is anybody actually using Cold? 

One day isn't so long.  We're all busy people.

> Peter Bengtson wrote:
> 
>>That taken care of, and having read the online
>>documentation - where does one begin to learn
>>about programming the system? I can't find a
>>description or really useful tutorial. I'm very
>>familiar with object-oriented systems (Common Lisp,
>>etc), and the programming language I suppose
>>explains itself, but where do I find information
>>about how Cold is organised,

Right now, and until Brandon or someone that works with whatever DB you 
use changes that, you have to read the source, browse around the code, etc.

Without knowing what DB you've been looking at, there is no way for me 
to provide more useful guidelines on how to do that browsing.

>>and how a virtual community is created?

I'm not sure at all what you mean by this question.  On one level, I 
could answer it by responding that you design your game or world, set up 
a server, work on implementing it, advertise it appropriately, and hope 
you get some players.  There's a lot to it though and without knowing 
more about what you're asking, there's nothing further I can really say.

>>How do I simplify the login process,

I can't answer this without knowing what system you're using, but 
hypothetically, if you were using ColdCore, you'd want to look at 
$login_interface, $login_daemon $login_connection and the associated 
code and ancestor objects.

>>how do I interface to HTTP,

Too complex for ColdCore to go over in an email (given my non-existent 
spare time).  Maybe Brandon or someone else will help.

>>how do I create objects such as bulletin boards, post
>>offices. Where are the foundation objects listed? Etc,
>>etc, ...

Look at things on ColdCore.  There are some toys around.  Play around 
with the system some and do some simple experimenting.  Figure out how 
descriptions work, how the mail system works, how to add a command, and 
so on.

As for whether or not Cold is being used, the activity on the list is 
not an indicator.  The Eternal City (TEC) 
(http://www.skotos.net/games/eternal-city/) is written in Cold, has a 
roughly 2G DB (although, better DB compression in an unreleased version 
of Genesis chopped that by 500M), has several hundred players and has 
been running for 4-5 years.

TEC is currently using a fairly advanced version of the driver that 
isn't released yet that is significantly faster, has better DB 
compression, etc.  I'll get around to releasing that at some point.

  - Bruce