Section 8 - Other Resources

r Section 8 - Other Resources

This section contains pointers to other locations of information that should be useful. Some of these will be for the newcomer to Rom, others will have information of use to all levels of experience.

It may sound obvious, but check out the sources of information you have at your fingertips but easily forget about first before looking farther afield. Most UNIX commands have a man page, accessible by using man . this typically lists all of a command's options. All library functions and system calls (e.g. fopen, gettimeofday) also have a man page. If you are looking for something and are unsure of what it's called, you can use man -k to search for all pages whose description contains that word, e.g. "man -k time".

If you are using GNU utils, the online documentation may be in a different format which can display information in a hyperlinked format. This is known as info, and you can get help on it by simply typing:
info

To go directly to the information about gcc, type:
info gcc

8.1 The ROM mailing list.

The Rom list is administered by Brian Moore, and you can subscribe to it by mailing
rom-request@rom.org
with a blank subject and the following in the mail body:
subscribe rom
The list is immoderated, though attempts are made to keep the posts on topic. If you plan to run a Rom mud for any length of time, this forum is a extremely useful source of information. Posts in HTML are sent to the bit bucket, you have been warned.

There is an archive of the last few months postings to the list:
http://romlist.compu.net/

And an additional one at :
http://aasen.dyn.ml.org/rom/index.html

8.2 The merc-l mailing list.

This list is aimed at Merc based muds, therefore many questions you have about Rom are not appropriate here if it is Rom specific. Traffic on it has dropped somewhat recently. Subscribe by mailing
majordomo@webnexus.com
with a blank subject and the following in the body:
subscribe merc-l

8.3 Usenet newsgroups

There are quite a few usenet mud related groups. Alt.mud is one, though the two most useful are probably: rec.games.mud.diku - aimed at diku based muds rec.games.mud.admin - for mud administrators, for all mud bases, not just diku
Additionally, rec.games.mud.announce is useful as announcements of mud openings and such are posted here. Note that this a moderated group, and if you wish to advertise here you can do so only once a month.

8.4 Learning the C Programming Language

This section gives some information on finding answers to questions that more generally relate to C programming than running a ROM mud in particular. It isn't in the scope of this FAQ or the ROM list to act as a beginner's class in C programming, so these resources should be checked out for answers if it's a C problem that has you stumped.

Many thanks to Shad Muegge for dropping this into my mailbox one day and making it a happy morning.

8.4.1 How do I learn more about programming in C?

You want to learn how to program C by working on a ROM server, but you don't know where to get started. This section describes different resources available to help you get started.

You learn to read and write any language by reading and writing in that language. This is just as true for learning a programming language. So, if you have a C programming question, pull up the ROM code and try to find an example in the code (it is probably there).

Other resources for answers include books (8.4.2), the C programming FAQ (8.4.3), and usenet discussion groups (8.4.4).

You have picked a fun way to learn C programming. Have fun!

8.4.2 Which C programming book should I get?

K&R invented the C language and they have written books! Their book is not the easiest from which to learn C programming, but it will be invaluable as a reference during your entire C programming career. The C Programming FAQ (8.4.3) offers more suggestions.

Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie, The C Programming Language,
Second Edition, Prentice Hall, 1988, ISBN 0-13-110362-8,
0-13-110370-9. [K&R2]

Lantham also recommends :
The Waite Groups New C Primer Plus Sams Publishing

Feydrex makes these additional comments about useful books.

I'd also suggest having some unix type books on the list too. I dunno what I would have ever done without them when I first bought them. 'Linux In A Nutshell' from O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. is a GREAT reference book to have for every Linux user. 'Unix In A Nutshell' also from O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. is a great reference book for those using System V or Solaris 2.0.

8.4.3 I can't find the answer in my book where do I go now?

Steve Summit maintains the "C Programming FAQ" which answers many of the common problems encountered by beginners and experienced programmers.

http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/C-faq/top.html

Gary McNickel adds:
Ok, found it... For all you newbie coders out there, and heck, for all of us... here's a great C reference page...
www.eg3.com/softdv/clang.htm

8.4.4 I can't find the answer in my C book or the FAQs where do I go now?

There are usenet discussion groups dedicated to the C programming language. These are the best places to ask general C questions (but check the FAQ (8.4.3) first. These newsgroups are intended for C language discussion only, if you have problems with a C compiler check for discussion groups for that specific compiler. Also, this would not be the place to ask how to add a spell to ROM (check this ROM FAQ for those kinds of questions).

C programming language discussion groups

comp.lang.c
comp.lang.c.moderated

GNU C Compiler discussion groups

gnu.gcc.*

Microsoft discussion groups

microsoft.public.*

If you don't have access to a NNTP server, then check
http://www.dejanews.com

8.5 WWW pages and ftp sites

The largest ftp repository of mud related information, code bases, clients and all kinds of goodies is at:
ftp://ftp.game.org
If you are looking for something mud-related, this should be an early stop on your list.
Over time, a number of sites have been set up with more specific aims than game.org, and the following list provided by Lantham contains many sites with Rom specific information. http://darkoth.mudnet.net
Several Darkoth archives exist, how current they are may vary:
http://darkoth.mudsrus.com
http://www.darkoth.nxs.net

http://rep.mudservices.com
http://www.abandoned.org/drylock
http://www.algonet.se/~rnen/
http://www.solace.mh.se/~ant/mud.html
http://www.algonquinc.on.ca/~mcco0055/
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Pines/9618 in Spanish
http://www.goodnet.com/~esnible/mudinfo.html
http://www.goodnet.com/~esnible/mzf.html
http://www.sonic.net/~amroth/mud/
http://haven.orisis.net/~dingo/rom-mud.html
http://members.tripod.net/~stardeo/rrp/
http://www.ncinter.net/~bert/mud/
http://www.concentric.net/~Clogar
http://clandestine.mudnet.net
http://cerberus.uab.es/~yago/snippets.shtml

Area Snippets

http://www.eng.usf.edu/~jmurphy
( You can also test out a lot of these areas at the mud address below.
--=[ jmurphy@eng.usf.edu ]=--
Infernal Realms Wurm Based MUD.
131.247.1.93 9000 )

Romlama

http://romlama.mudservices.com
http://www.termfrost.org/~whiplash
( closed now - and prolly gonna be members only if it opens)

Main Rom Page Index 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

C programming language discussion groups

GNU C Compiler discussion groups

Microsoft discussion groups

Area Snippets

ROM for windoz

Merc Programmers Webring

Sites for finding coders/builders

Make Zones Fast (MZF) can be found at:

MudMate can be found at:

Romlama