[MUD-Dev] handling ambiguity, and prompts

[clawrenc at cup.hp.com]

In <9705191729.80y0 at ami-cg.GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA>, on 05/19/97 
   at 08:02 PM, cg at ami-cg.graysage.edmonton.ab.ca (Chris Gray) said:

>In earlier discussions, Chris L. had talked about nested
>questions/prompts, and ways of suspending them indefinitely using an
>escape character to allow you to force through a non-answering
>command without cancelling the question/prompt. This kind of thing is
>what would bother me as a user -
>the "stack" in my brain is only about 2 deep!

I have several pieces which contribute here:

  A given character may enter a nested prompt state.
  
  That state can be exited either by answering the prompt or 
    by entering a blank command.

  Any command entered at a nested prompt by default will attempt 
    to answer the prompt.  Should it fail to answer the prompt
    the command will fail.

  A command may be prefixed with a special flag character 
    indicating that this command is to be handed to the default 
    command processor (ie no prompt), without removing the prompt 
    state.
  
Where this gets messy:

  A single human player can simultaneously control one or more 
    characters

  Each character may simultaneously control one or more bodies.

  Each body is synonymous with that virtual lump of 
    nerve-twitching meat I mentioned earlier.

  Each body may enter a prompted command state.

A little while ago I gave an example which showed the on-screen
appearance for a human playing several characters each of which was
controlling one or more bodies.  I could re-quote if needed.

--
J C Lawrence                           Internet: claw at null.net
(Contractor)                           Internet: coder at ibm.net
---------------(*)               Internet: clawrenc at cup.hp.com
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