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Newbie Joined: 10 Jun 2010 Posts: 2

Hi I read somewhere that Cmud uses "zScript which is the programming language originally invented for the popular zMUD client. It was based upon the original TinTin++ client language.."

I want to take a class at my community college and they offer programming in Java and programming in C++.
So should I take the Java class or the C++ class? AND ALSO were can I learn zScript. is there like a manual?

any suggestions or answers would be great!
I'm tried of always being defenseless and dying in my Mud...

Wizard Joined: 26 Mar 2008 Posts: 1547

Whether or not you take Java or C++ is up to you. You should probably learn both if you're interested in programming, but neither is particularly more relevant to zScript and both will help you understand scripting in general better at the very least. CMUD's help section is listed under the "Support" button of the site underneath the main banner above, but here is a link. When you can't find the answer there, you're generally in good shape if you ask here. At the very least, even if we feel that you should be able to find the answer on your own, many of the posters are helpful and will show you where you can find it, even if they don't answer directly.

Just be sure you're specific and informative in your post. Nothing is more irking than "How can I fix this *post block of code*?"

Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2011 6:05 pm

Just reading the online help files for zScript is really your only option.

However, I should warn you that zScript is not like languages such as Java and C++. zScript is a scripting language and has a pretty weird syntax left over from the TinTin compatibility. zScript is still more like an "interpreted" language, such as Perl rather than a "compiled" language like C++.

For your future job prospects, I would recommend learning *both* C++ and Java. They both have similar syntax and both will be useful in the "real world". Not really sure which to recommend first, but maybe Java.

What you will learn in any programming class is how to start thinking in a "problem solving" way. That will help with any programming language, even zScript. Just try not to get bogged down in the actual "syntax" of a language. It really doesn't matter if a language uses {} braces, or "begin end" blocks (Pascal), or "if endif" blocks. Try to get past the specific letters that you are typing (the syntax) and learn the bigger concepts about how to structure a program to solve a problem. Splitting code into "functions", etc.

With both C++ and Java you will learn very important concepts called "Object Oriented Programming". Most modern programming languages are "object oriented" and it's a different way of thinking about problem solving compared to the old-fashion programming days. Keep in mind that zScript is *not* object oriented for the most part. So that will be different.

And nothing is a substitute for just jumping in and trying to solve a problem. Think of a specific problem on your Mud you want to solve with a script, then post here (in a different post) to get help and suggestions. The more you work at it, the better you will get. Taking a class in programming is no match for years of experience.