Let's have some style

[taladan]

After speaking with Beaglefinder on Tenebrae about the jobs system in particular and coding in general, I've realized that our most important issue to tackle is to have a cohesive and coherent style guide for any and all projects created here. I've created the following page to begin work on this issue.

https://github.com/taladan/Pegasus/wiki/Style

[taladan]

comments from beaglefinder@tene added for reference

Beaglefinder response to RFC on Tenebrae mux telnet://tenebraemush.net:4001

I imagine we'd need to look at a split system, because:

1. MUs have a large, existing playerbase who are familiar with a certain way of doing things.
2. The growth of forum RP over the years points to a solid potential for growth
3. There's an advantage to bringing old games up to the future because that brings in existing content.
4. There's an advantage to making it easy for new players to make new games.

Having prompts for high-traffic areas can be immensely helpful, both to staff and users. We've found that to be the case with +events.

Where you'd want prompts:

• Core systems that new players will use right away
• Complex functions and systems that need done 'just right'
• Volunteer contribution areas (feats, spells, equipment)

Where you'd want a style-guide enforced command line system

• Simple editing functions
• Isolated functions (+time)
• advanced function sets used by a niche group
• Frequently repeated staff commands
• Expansion features

Expanding some of that:

• Where structure and skill matters, prompts reduce errors
• MUs are volunteer-based systems.
• Volunteers come with varying skills. Games NEED help in both setup and long term.

Outside of its "launch" and "soft reboots," Tenebrae consistently updates and adds content. Areas we've consistently needed help in: feats, spells, equipment entry. If we could set someone ASSIST for a month and get help, it would help staff get assistance they need over time without endangering other systems.

Staff come in varying skill sets. For problematic areas, prompts reduce errors, and allow staff to help more people uniformly. More technically skilled staff may prefer access to command line-style, though, for fast edits. This is not too dissimilar to players, but staff need some <3, here.

Prompts ensure uniformity. I've seen prompts used in other places for apps, where it asks staffers the same questions and brings up relevent data. This simple type of prompt ensures a more uniform player experience over time. It's probably outside the scope of this; I'm just mentioning it as an example of "nuanced prompts."

Some things are "just databases" and shouldn't fall into prompts or command line. A web-interface for repeated, DB-style entries could probably be more efficient for certain types of data entry. Feats, equipment, spells. ...class feature lists?

"Expansion features" for less-common but needful circumstances are probably best handled in command line additions. For example, +event/loot is an expansion feature that we need, but might never fit into a player-side prompts system smoothly. Then, what happens when you add more features?

Help systems themselves need a style guide like woah, too. With search now being king, I'd consider making help files modular, with 2 display options.

View Topics Format:

+help equip +help inventory

+inv/equip <#> First 10 words of command desc. +inv/unequip <#> First 10 words of command desc. +inv/give <#> First 10 words of command desc.

View Entry Format:

+help/view equip

SYNTAX: +inv/equip <#> This is the full command description. The description has a specific style guide, but a staff could edit it if the content is unique (see the table in +help request and +help reach)

...the above isn't as user-friendly as it could be and I'd toss it to you, here. I might be stuck in old ways, very much so. I do know our players vastly prefer searching +help. We have MANY fewer "where's the help file?" questions since we added the search feature.

For usability overall, it'd be helpful to have:

• Command Style Guide Help Style Guide Color Style Guide

I have scraps of these sorts of things from back when. I don't say they're in any formal shape, but they're offered if you would find them helpful. ^^; Right now, it's difficult for me to standardize help files, despite WO's gracious help.

The closest we've gotten to standardizing both Help and Color Styles from the code end was something akin to a defansi() command. This command let you define certain elements, such as CODE EXAMPLE TEXT, HEADER, and HILIGHT L1 in predefined colors. It also enabled the use of "skins" for colors.

Players, we found out, have Very Defined Opinions about their color settings, which is one of the reasons ours is more standardized and understated. When we didn't have the color guide, too, commands had gone all over the place.

Anyhow, that is my blather. I've had about 3 hours of sleep. I'd like to toss a nod to check out AresMUSH's command structures if you haven't. Their director has had an eye on usability for some time. I haven't looked into them extensively, but what I've glanced through looks nice. I've heard good things about their Charpage generation, too.