Talk:Commands

Peer Review

The document needs peer review again. I rewrote a few sections of it to account for some of Jaxen's feedback related to subshells; I basically found a way to explain it without going into the dregs of the details. It might become apparent tomorrow how I can more properly integrate that concept. I'm open to suggestions. -- Alkani 2017-08-14 13:53:44

Jaxen's Feedback (From Page Mail on 2017-08-14

• Under Struture & Command Life style, I think it would be worth noting that a few commands, notably editors such as editplayer, mail, lsedit have a more involved usage case than send the command (with parameters), it runs then returns results. Once you enter those commands, you're in another shell until you exit it.

  • I'm working on rewriting the article to include these concepts, since there isn't a good way to address this idea with the current structure. Since the article is, overall, considered okay without being overly technical, I feel comfortable mentioning this concept in here. I'm not sure how relevant it is to the average user aside from, depending on the application, they have to interact with the MUCK in a restricted way, but it's worth putting in if I'm talking about program linking. -- Alkani 2017-08-14 12:31:12

    • I have rewritten the article. That was exhausting, but I think well worth it. -- Alkani 2017-08-14 13:53:44

• Minor thing under Return. You give an example the outputs caused by paging, but one might wonder, what was the imput typed to generate that output? ---Jaxen

  • The output in Return is based on the command string that Violet composed at the end of the Composition section. However, that linkage isn't apparent. I have added text to make it clearer that the Return section output is based on the input from the Composition section. -- Alkani 2017-08-14 12:31:12

• Should it be mentioned it's possible for one to have personal commands or area specific commands? 'Restrictions' might be a good place to note this if any. --- Jaxen

  • I was struggling with whether or not to add this as a remark, so now I will. -- Alkani 2017-08-14 12:31:12

• Under 'Global Commands', I think it's worth noting SpinDizzy tries to set a description on all globals which leads to documation of said global. It's also common practice on MUCKs for the parameter '#help' to bring up that command's documentation. ---Jaxen

  • I've added an explanation about using 'look <command>' and '<command> #help' to get help for global commands. Both syntaxes are used extensively, with more weight being placed on 'look <command>' in the current global command set (78 v. 57). The remaining twenty-one commands use neither. Perhaps unifying the global command help system could be a small side project of mine at some point. -- Alkani 2017-08-14 12:31:12

• Lastly, I added whospecies to the short list of common commands, so if any newbie comes across that list, they'll know how to tell if they're in a room with someone to talk to. ---Jaxen

  • Thank you! Hoping to expand this list considerably as part of the Getting Started document. -- Alkani 2017-08-14 12:31:12

Lepus' Feedback

My immediate feedback is that it's comprehensive but may be abstruse for a

• newcomer. It can serve well as a in-depth view into the commands, but a more tutorial focus might be easier for people to take in--one that even includes an explanation of the common UI (use muck.spindizzy.org screenshots for this). For example, a newcomer needs to know how to speak and pose and look at things; until they know how to do these things a deeper understanding of the notions of keywords and parameters is not especially useful to them. Another facet of this experience that should be touched upon is not just input but output: Breakdown some text in the window into room description, exits/contents, and conversation/ actions. This seems obvious but it is 2017.

This could exist as the first part of the Commands page before a deeper dive into

• the axioms involved. Now, perhaps that is beyond the scope of the Commands page as you envision it. If so, that's fine. But then I'd like to see a more example/run-through oriented getting started page which links to the Commands page for further details.

That being said: The contents of the commands page is excellent in its clarity and

• comprehensiveness. Well-done.

---Lepus

• Oh, this is definitely not intended as the Getting Started document. That will, hopefully, ultimately be GettingStarted/A Player's First Day, which I sort of want to call "Player's First Day" or something ridiculous as a reference to "The Little Red Hen" video from Rifftrax. -- Alkani 2017-08-14 13:53:44