[40] in Coldmud discussion meeting

Re: clear parameters

daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Tue Nov 16 21:14:17 1993 )

Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1993 18:47:21 -0600 (MDT)
From: Lynx <BRANDON@cc.usu.edu>
To: coldstuff@MIT.EDU
X-Vms-To: IN%"coldstuff@mit.edu"

> Variable values are not inherited in Coldmud, period.  All object
> variables have a default value of 0.

well, this seems odd to me, and what I'm going to say here may not make sense,
but I dont make sense often times, and i'm still trying to figure out what Greg
is completely meaning by encapsulation, but:

	Methods are essentially clear, because you can call them on objects
which do not have the method defined, but their parents do.  So say you define
a method which references a parameter on a parent, it breaks in the child
because the method is clear, and the parameter is not (the parameter is at 0,
when it should be at [foo] or something like it is on the parent).  This doesnt
make sense to me...

	Also, lets just say that this parameter I spoke of earlier is called
foo.  This parameter is defined on a parent, and every so often the parent
changes the value for various reasons (its how the method functions).  On all
the children the parameter is defined as 0, so to get the method to work right
you are going to have to have it call the parent directly, or set the parameter
for each child...

	As for simply setting the parameter for each child, this seems like it
would take up a _lot_ of unneccessary space; and I AM worrying about space
since the Cold Dark will be a machine which I am paying for out of my own
pocket...

> I do not think it would be "nicer" to have a more baroque variable
> lookup system, notwithstanding people's reliance on it in MOO.  As I
> pointed out, such a variable lookup system damages encapsulation, and
> can be done trivially in-db.

How does it damage it?  And forgive my naivete' but what _IS_ encapsulation?
(I'm an english major, forgive me)

Dont think we are all ganging up on you Greg, I think that ColdMUD is a great
server, much better than MOO, but there are somethings which we would like to
see, either out of our relation with MOO, or simply because we think it may
work out better that way.  If you believe we are wrong, please tell us, and
tell us _why_  It is hard for us to simply swallow our pride on something we
are tied to off simple trust.
(heh, we are all a bunch of untrusting bastiches :)

-Brandon/Lynx/Me.