ADMINS (New and Old): RFC

From: Chris Herringshaw (xxviper@med.umich.edu)
Date: 06/20/95


This message is a request for comments.  If you don't want to read 
it, or just don't care, please feel free to hit the delete key any 
time.  Thanks.

Jeremy and I have had a few discussions about an administrative 
toolkit for CircleMUD, based on an X-Windows environment.  Due
to the increasing number of new CircleMUD admins, and the time
constraints of existing admins, I felt it would be an interesting
and quite useful project to develop such a toolkit.  Jeremy has 
offered to make such a toolkit a part of the CircleMUD distribution,
or at least make it available alongside the releases.

This is what I have envisioned - a fully functional graphical 
interface, with the ability to maintain and manipulate the
CircleMUD 3.0 release.  The admin will have the ability to
modify player files, manipulate and handle mail, set the data
files, security options, etc.  All with a hopefully easy-to-use
interface.  I have also added in a terminal "shell", which the
player will be able to connect to the MUD directly from the 
interface.  I have just about prototyped an *offline* Xwindows
database creation extensions to the interface.  I basically
hacked it all together in a few weeks, and now I am ready for
the design and coding of the release.  The package will be
either done in C w/ embedded tcl/tk, or possibly in straight
tcl/tk, therefore eliminating most motif compilation problems.
The package should run under SunOS, HP, IBM, SGI, and Linux
systems.  But before I undertake this, I want to submit the 
project to the subscribers of the list who are administrators,
and ask for your suggestions.  Let your mind go free - whatever
you've ever wanted in the form of utilities or an interface, and
an offline creation system, I'd like to hear about it.  If you have
a great idea but no time to implement it, share it with me and if
it fits I'll put it in.

However, before you send me comments please let me state that I do 
not want flame mail.  Any "that's stupid", "you suck", "don't
help newbie admins", "I don't have Xwindows", and especially
"I hate to keep asking but when the hell are you going to release..." 
messages will be deleted without having read them.  I have been
fully sponsored for the project, with a final *beta tested* release
expected by December 15th, 1995.  This is not a "dreamer" message
or a whimsical idea, and all constructive comments will be considered.

What I would like to hear is "I saw a system that had a cool ...", 
"I wish it was modeled after ... software", "allowing builders to
use the offline creation without account access would be cool",
"keep ... separate from ... because", "drag-and-drop ... would
be awesome", "a dynamic line graph of the amount of players online
would be cool".  These comments are exactly the type I would like
to hear.  

If you are interested in such a system, and even if you are not, 
any helpful comments or suggestions are greatly appreciated, not
only by me, but all the administrator who end up using the toolkit.

Thank you!

====================================================================
Christopher Herringshaw     Networking and Special Projects Division
Medical Center Information Technology (MCIT)   xxviper@med.umich.edu
University of Michigan Medical Center, B1911 CFOB
1414 Catherine Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-0704       (313) 747-2778
====================================================================



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