MAJIK IV
$Id: majik4.txt,v 1.1 1998/04/08 11:06:07 namhas Exp $

  There has been 3 manifestations of Majik. First, we had a circlemud
  and we were just learning the system and testing everything. It didn't
  work quite well thus we started Majik again from scratch with more
  experience and so we created possibly one of the best circlemuds ever,
  we even had 'ls' command in it!

  We are now in almost same situation as Majik I was once, we started to
  create the majik we have currently online without any previous experience,
  all was new and thus we wanted to try everything, withou concentrating
  on planning at all. We didn't know the problems that might arise in the
  development.

  Now, as we are converting Majik III to new gridmap system we need to recode
  most parts of the mudlib in any case, including all areas, all skills,
  all spells, all commands and so on. So, why we just don't start everything
  from scratch and fix the design problems and the lack of organizing along
  with other problems. If we start from beginning we can concentrate on
  developing the base system and avoid the 'collapsing tower' phenomena.

  Majik III would stay as an idea exchange place where mortals, idle wizzes
  and others could talk, idle and suggest ideas. Majik IV would be closed
  for public and open only for dedicated mudlib coders, no area coders or
  others are allowed because areas doesn't really belong to the necessary
  code we need to have in the base system.

  Optimistic estimate of the time needed to get Majik IV to the beta phase
  is approximately, hopefully, only few months, if everything goes as we
  wanted it to go. When we have Majik IV in the beta phase we can get our
  area coders, idle wizzes, mortals and others back and continue the
  development. Everything works much better if we have working base system
  under us.

  Wizzes who will be left to Majik III can use Majik III as testsuite,
  plan ideas, test ideas, implement ideas and whatever that is appropriate.
  Planning and testing is encouraged since when the code from Majik III
  is taken to Majik IV it requires recoding in most cases. Develop your
  coding skills while dedicated mudlib coders are coding the base in
  Majik IV.

  Majik IV will be sort of offline coding project. The project is handled by
  CVS (Concurrent Version System) thus allowing many developers make
  modifications to same code simultaneously without conflicts. Every time
  when some file is modified a log entry will be made. The discussion
  between developers will be handled using a mailing list. Non-developers
  and mortals can also join to that list. Every developer in Majik IV has
  copy of the lib and server at home, and there will be no place where
  anyone could connect. The address majik.netti.fi 23 will still lead to
  Majik III.

  For now, dazzt, me and yorkaturr will be coding Majik IV, we consider
  taking harum also, and maybe someone else who is skilled, diligent
  and *reliable* enough.

Your admin,
Namhas.