Xpertmud - The Mud Experience
FAQ

Table of Contents:

  1. How do I contribute to this FAQ?
  2. How do I compile xpertmud for windows?
  3. xpertmud segfaults on startup!
  4. The "login sequence"/"startup script" don't work correctly
  5. How do I activate that graphical HUD plugin for Battletech?!
  6. I want to sell my script/plugin. May I do that?
  7. I want to publish my script/plugin. Can you do that for me?
  8. I only see alpha and beta versions arround here. Where are the real releases?

How do I contribute to this FAQ?
You can either ask at the forum, the mailing list or send a mail to Manuel Klimek or Ernst Bachmann.

How do I compile xpertmud for windows?
Short answer: You don't. Xpertmud is GPL'ed, and as long as there is no QT with GPL compatible license for Windows, you can't do that.
Long answer: Open a shell, make sure your VC and QT environment variables are set. Execute "nmake Makefile.ms config", then "nmake". Start praying.
Update: the KDE on Cygwin Project did great work porting the GPL'ed QT-X11 to Windows. It is now possible to compile xpertmud using only the cygwin tool chain and OpenSource Libraries.
A release of a new Win32 build will follow soon.
If you want to try building it yourself, look at the INSTALL-WIN32 file in CVS.

xpertmud segfaults on startup!
You probably installed it wrong. Supply a --prefix argument to ./configure. "/usr/local" won't work on most of the distros out there.
Your prefix needs to be in kde's search path, otherwise xpertmud won't find its plugins. Current CVS versions do a better job at selecting working default prefix.
Instead of reinstalling, you can also try to extend kde's search path:

export KDEDIRS=$KDEDIRS:/usr/local
xpertmud

The "login sequence"/"startup script" don't work correctly
Make sure you pressed enter at the end of the last line in both input boxes. Xpertmud sends/executes the stuff in there "as-is", so if there is no newline at the end, no newline is sent.
Maybe we'll add some warning popup when the last newline is missing in the future...

How do I activate that graphical HUD plugin for Battletech?!
First make yourself a bookmark that connects you and logs you in correctly. The HUD will not load correctly if you're not logged in. Test it. If that one works, go to the scripting settings of your bookmark, choose perl, and input

#parse "xperthud.pl";
for the script. (Python users use "btcockpit.py")
Remember, those scripts are just examples for the Battletech plugin, so you'll probably want to edit them. Put your modified version in "~/.kde*/share/apps/xpertmud/perl", that directory is in Perl's search path, and it won't be overwritten when you update xpertmud.
You might also want to add
#parse "pipes.pl"
#parse "completion.pl"
to the script, for some additional features.
F6/F5 activate/deactivate the HUD, for other key bindings, please read the source.

I want to sell my script/plugin. May I do that?
Yes, but you'll most likely have to put your script/plugin under a GPL compatible license, so the guy you sold it to will redistribute it for free.
Scripts are condidered "linking" against Xpertmud, since they use it's library functions. So scripts can't escape the GPL.
There is a way you can escape it for plugins, but it's not easy:
Split your plugins in a GPL and a proprietary part. The GPL part is used in xpertmud, and has to execute the proprietary part as a seperate process.
More information about this issue is available here and here

I want to publish my script/plugin. Can you do that for me?
Sure. Mail us about it, and we'll add a link to your plugin to the download section.
But you're also welcome to join the developers, and work on your plugin in the xpertmud CVS repository. That way it will be distributed along with xpertmud, which should attract quite some people to your favorite mud. Ask one of the project admins about CVS access.

I only see alpha and beta versions arround here. Where are the real releases?
There are none.
Why? Version X.Y runs quite fine here?
Cause it's not stable. Just play with the scripting menu, try to load/unload perl multiple times...
Or watch the strange behavior of MDI windows while maximizing, resizing etc... or ...
So unless the quality of the libraries we depend on (qextmdi, libperl, ...) improves, we can't really do a real release and be happy about it.

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