[MUD-Dev] Dots in a name?

[Martin Keegan]

On Sun, 10 Aug 1997, Matt Chatterley wrote:

> On Sun, 10 Aug 1997, Chris Gray wrote:
> 
> > Well, you can just pick one, and ignore everyone else! Mainly because that's
> > what the Amiga uses, I picked ISO Latin-1, which works not bad for many
> > international uses. The codes for it seem to work on many UNIX boxes as
> > well, and I suspect can be made to work on PC's. A friend with a Mac
> > complained that the E-acute I had used in the name "Faberge" was some
> > wierd thing on his system. I thought about it a bit and decided I didn't
> > really care.
> > 
> > Of course Microsoft would prefer you use Unicode.

I'd prefer to use Unicode as well. Then I could use the Verdurian script.
I can't wait! :)
 
> Heh. I suppose it depends on whether or not you intend to 'encourage' a
> custom client for the game (IIRC you mentioned ages ago that Island
> basically built in a client, Martin?).

I don't want to encourage any such thing, no, unless it's seamlessly
integrated into the game. Yes, Island did have the burden of a built in
client.

You connected to 'forker', which forked off a client which connected to a
server which talked to the main game. This filth was written by James Lord
for a game system called OxMUD, which never came to fruition, and was
inserted screaming into version 5 of Island (before which everything used
shared files). The following filk on "Dry Bones" sums it up well:

	The forker's connected to the - terminal.
	The terminal's connected to the - server.
	The server's connected to the - main game.
	And flame the code of the ~lord.

The client did things like the ' > " : :: < <: ": ":: abbreviations and
output formatting. Version 12 will hopey see this all folded into a single
process (or see me just replace rclient with a hacked version of
TinyFugue).

> If so, and even without, you could distribute a font for non-unix systems
> that can handle these special characters, surely? Those users who actually
> object to unusual characters looking funny on their systems can snag the
> relevant font file, and then proceed to install and use it to alleviate
> their problems.

How do I do that? I'd primarily be aiming at the WinLosers.
 
> This isn't as easy for UNIX users - so I'd suggest you use something UNIX
> is happy with as your base.

Ok. So what is this and where do I get it? ISO-xxxx-xxxx?

Mk