Circle 3.0 beta, patchlevel 9 released

From: Jeremy Elson (jelson@blaze.cs.jhu.edu)
Date: 02/05/96


Well, here it is... another Circle patchlevel.  I know, it's been a while,
but it's my last semester of school and things seem to be quieting down
a bit at last.

You can FTP it from ftp.cs.jhu.edu:/pub/CircleMUD/3.x or
cambot.res.jhu.edu:/pub/CircleMUD/3.x.

This is primarily a release to 1) get people back into the habit of seeing
patchlevels ;-), 2) fix some the dumbest bugs in patchlevel 8, and 3) try
to get people to test the newly-configurable Circle sources.  As of pl9,
Circle is configured using the GNU autoconf package, so you basically just
have to type './configure' and 'make' in order to inflict a MUD on the
Internet.  Whether this is a good or bad thing I'm not sure.  Actually,
to be honest, the biggest reason for autoconf is because most of the MUD-
related mail I get is from people who can't compile Circle due to not being
able to something that autoconf now does for them.

Try it out.. keep the bug reports coming.. there will probably be another
patchlevel in a week or two.  In particular, tell me if "./configure"
works, and if you like it.. and try your hardest at duping and tell me if
you can do it.

Jeremy
jelson@jhu.edu

PS - The CircleMUD mailing list (circle@pvv.unit.no) seems to have crashed
but is back up now.  I didn't realize this until today when I discovered
that I hadn't been subscribed for a month or more -- so if you haven't
gotten any mail lately, just drop a note to majordomo@pvv.unit.no with
a body of "subscribe circle".  JE



--- Patchlevel 9

(No dates on this patchlevel... sorry!)
-- Made Circle self-configuring using the GNU 'autoconf' package; created
   new header files conf.h and sysdep.h.  Most standard library files are
   now conditionally included from sysdep.h and have been removed from the
   .c files.  -lsocket/-lnsl libraries are automatically used if needed.
   Circle's built-in 'random' function is used only if there is no random()
   on the system.. many other autoconfigured aspects as well.

-- Rewrote much of the code for the login/load sequence to prevent duping.
   Duping should hopefully be impossible now.  Fixed the dumb bug that allowed
   people to cut off players by logging in and out without a password.

-- Added 20 second limit to entering a password before you're cut off.

-- Fixed the braindead way LOADROOM works.  Syntax is now simply "set ras
   loadroom <vnum>" or "set ras loadroom off".  Loadroom now properly set
   when someone quits out of their house, so they go back there by default.

-- Truncate message board titles to 80 characters or less - fixes a crash
   bug.

-- Changed tunnels so that they are "full" only if filled with a PC, not
   just any char.

-- Redid the code for setting the minimum levels classes need to be before
   they can use spells and skills, and moved it to class.c.  It's now *much*
   easier to add new classes--- stupidly, under the old system, every time
   you added a new class all of the existing spello() calls had to be
   changed!  See class.c to see how spell-level setting is done now.

-- Fixed the bug which popped up in systems such as FreeBSD which incorrectly
   reported the number of available file descriptors if the number was
   unlimited (RLIM_INFINITY).

-- Fixed a bug causing crashes if text files (motd/imotd/news/etc) are empty.

-- FINALLY fixed the dumb bug causing the first char (implementor) to log
   in to come in with all stats of 0.

-- Changed magic.c so the number of affects a spell can have is not
   arbitrarily limited to 2.

-- Immortals can walk past guildguards.

-- Fixed up some spells (create water works now).

-- Added 'show houses' for Mr. Christopher Epler.  :)

-- Fixed a small error in one of the comments in boards.c describing how
   to add a new board.
   Found by Stefan Rensing



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