Welcome to MudMaster 2k6

mm2k6 Enters a New Phase

mm2k6 has been stable for a while. New features have been added regularly. The addition of script that allows you to open session windows and send text and commands between them opened up many new possibilities. Scripts for routing channel and chat text to viewing windows have begun to be implemented.

This is just the beginning though. Build 32 introduced a major advance in dll support. mm2k6 now will send raw incoming MUD text, chat text, and input text to any dll functions named onReceiveLine, onChatLine, or onInputLine. The dlls can indicate that no further processing of those lines is required. See the User Guide section for more information about Dll plugins and try out the sample Dll which gives you a floating graphical status bar window. The source is there for your to see and play with.

I'm hoping that this will lead to people expanding the base of dlls that extend mm2k6. With the passing of raw input to dlls it is now possible for people to create dlls that provide other script language processing, mxp supprt, floating toolbar support, world map window support and much more. I hope the possibilities are endless!

Why 2k6?

MudMaster 2000 is great. It's motto that "Fun Should Be Free" said it all back then. Mudders around the world enjoy the benefits of an advanced, flexible, and stable MUD client because of the hard work and dedication of Aaron O'Neil, Kevin Cook, and Tim Bowen.

MudMaster 2000 3.9 was released around the time open source code was gaining popularity and influence. We heard the news that version 4.0 was being converted to open source and sure enough the MudMaster 2000 4.0 code appeared at sourceforge.net. The future looked great!

Nothing seemed to happen though. After years of no releases a few people tried to get involved in the sourceforge project but discovered that the code there was an uncompilable mix of code partly converted to VC++ 7 with MFC and partly converted to use the Boost C++ libraries. The original coders no longer had the time to invest in making 4.0 stable. Where were the hoards of open source coders ready to jump in and collectively make this project work? No new developers were getting access to update the code.

Having never coded C++ I was convinced I wasn't the one who was meant to take this on but I really was getting tired of some of the known bugs and limitations in version 3.9. I finally took the big step of connecting to the sourceforge CVS and downloading the 4.0 source. Since I didn't have developer status I couldn't update the source with any of my changes but decided I'd just have my own private version. After all nobody else seemed to even care.

I managed to make version 4.0 work and for a couple of years I slowly chipped away at fixing bugs that had been introduced during the conversion to VC++ 7. Only a very few people I knew personally had and used this version of 4.0. Finally in 2006 someone else not only took an interest but decided that the updated code should be public. Xirus tried to negotiate admin access to the mm2k sourceforge project but was turned down. This wasn't going to stop him from breathing life back into the project so he created a branch and MudMaster 2k6 was born.

Since then mm2k6 has made steady, incremental progress. Vitaly jumped on board and has been instrumental in improving the interface and making sure new builds can be released.