On Sun, 18 Jan 1998, Michael J. Fara wrote:
->your comments ammuse me plenty. perhaps if the guy had finished the code,
->didnt put 50 different errors into it, and did what you recommend I wouldnt
->have to. The whole reason why its called a snippet is so you can add it
->with little difficulty or experience. I am trying to learn C by
->experiencing my mistakes. If someone would tell me what the hell was wrong
->I might be able to fix it.
Uhm, strange; we're getting told by a newbie (by your own admission)
what a snippet is, and getting code advice on-top of that. Perhaps
you should use some common sense. A snippet is by no means code that
you can add in with "little difficulty or experience."
Code that you can add in with little difficulty or experience is
called a "patch" and can be automatically patched into your MUD by the
'patch' program. A snippet is, as the name implies, a section of code
"cut" (hence, "snip") out of a whole. That doesn't mean it will work
for you; and it doesn't mean that it's a complete isolated section of
code that will work. For instance, this is a snippet:
if (!(x = skill_roll(SKILL_KICK, GET_SKILL(ch, SKILL_KICK),
STAT_ORDER(ch)))) {
output_ch(ch, "Skill roll for '%s' failed.\r\n",skills[SKILL_KICK]);
return;
}
Now, is this particularly useful to you? Probably not. It references
two functions that you don't have (you may have functional
equivalents, but since I don't tell you how each operates in detail,
you don't really know). The majority of snippets, however, are not
meant to be added verbatim into your MUD. They are meant to show you
how someone did one thing in particular. If it were meant to be a
complete, working section of code, then it'd probably be a patch.
And, even so, don't expect people to go out of their way to make
something work for you. After all, who in the hell are *you* to say
what others should do with their spare time? People release snipets
and patches because they /want/ to; after which, they have no
obligation to support that patch or snippet, and you really can't
expect them to. If we were making money off of this, then it would be
different.
BTW, learn to code in C through some other means. CircleMUD is a big,
complex program--despite the code being well-written and easy-to-read.
Newbies can't really respect the readability of the code, since they
have no idea what any of the code is doing. Go write hello world, or
a calculator. This is, of course, a suggestion. Some people have
been able to learn C by coding in Circle, but it is a tough road, and
one which can lead a coder to impotence in non-Circle coding.
-dak
p.s. This isn't a flame; so don't get worked up about it.
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