NOTES

HackNet development version 0.0.1
---------------------------------

  Statement of Purpose:

HackNet is a multiplayer game from the "roguelike" genre of games.  For the
old-school folks in the crowd, this means that it's a lot like Rogue, Hack, 
and many other similar games (but currently with a lot less 'stuff'
available to play with).  For the johnny-come-latelies, this means that it's
like Diablo, Nox, and many other similar games (but with a lot more 
'stuff' available to play with).

With only a few exceptions, there have been very few multiplayer "roguelike"
games released.  Most notable are MAngband and Crossfire (see below for
URL links).  From my point of view, Crossfire wasn't quite right because it
felt rather more like an arcade game than I generally like.  I had the same
problem with the Diablos and Nox.  A true Roguelike is a turn-based game in
which you can sit and consider your next move for long periods of time,
without penalty and without risk.  MAngband has timed turns, and has certain 
other features I don't like -- the regeneration of levels when nobody's left
on them, for example.  Over the years, I've been spoiled by games like 
NetHack, which remember levels when you leave them, so you can return to them 
later, and I expect the same from a multiplayer roguelike game.  This was how 
the HackNet project began;  to create a a multiplayer game with the depth and 
the gameplay style of the single-player game NetHack.

A second goal of the project is to provide a "jumping off" point to attract
new players to roguelike games, and NetHack in particular.  We seek to mirror
many of the features of that classic game in HackNet, in a multiplayer
context, so that players can learn by accompanying experienced players on
HackNet quests.  Early-game survival is one of the most difficult tasks for
new roguelike players to master, and so having experienced players to look
to for guidance can only help the newbies!

---------------------------------------

Technical information for prospective developers:

  I decided early on not to build HackNet as a patch on top of the NetHack
code.  The NetHack codebase has been under development for more than fifteen 
years, and it shows.  The code has specialised to the point that it would
not take such a massive change without massive code restructuring.

  So, having made that decision, I also decided also not to follow NetHack's
policy of making the source code compilable on virtually every piece of
hardware known to man.  Instead, it's written in ANSI C++ (compilable on
virtually all modern operating systems).  The dedicated server should run
under any operating system, but the current client requires a POSIX
compliant threads library and a curses or ncurses library.  This means
that the client probably won't compile cleanly under non-UNIX-based
operating systems (ie: Windows or MacOS).  If someone wants to patch the
client to run under those and/or other systems, I'd be thrilled to
integrate the patch into the source base!

  Tabs, naming conventions, and other stylistic things.  This is a bit
silly, but here's the general policy I'm following to try to keep the
code style consistant:

  -  Code blocks are tabbed one further in than their enclosing braces
  (yes, I'd have thought this was obvious, but some people seem to like
  to tab the enclosing braces in as well.)
  -  Classes have a short prefix denoting which system they belong
  to.  'hn' stands for 'hacknet', and denotes a core game system.  'net'
  denotes a networking class.  'io' denotes an input/output class.  io
  classes should not talk over the network, net classes should not check
  for keyboard input, and hn classes shouldn't do either.  This is just
  to maintain clean code.  (As yet, no 'io' classes have been created)
  -  A class's member variables should all be named as m_<variable name>
  where <variable name> contains no underscores.  The first word in
  <variable name> should be lowercase, and all subsequent words should
  be upper case.  (Can you tell I grew up as a Mac programmer?)  :)
  -  My stance on Hungarian notition;  Just Say No.  Use m_thingCount
  instead of m_nThings and m_myString instead of m_lpszMyString.
  -  I've typedefed some integer types -- (u|s)int(8|16|32), which
  ought to compile into the correct size integer on any system.  Please
  use these types, rather than char/short/int/longs, which could be
  virtually any size!  (It's only really critical that they be used in
  the networking code, but I'd like to encourage their use everywhere
  else as well.. even if I haven't been particularly good about using
  them, myself!)

  I'd like to actively encourage the participation of other coders
who are interested in contributing to the HackNet project!  If you're
interested in some area of the project, let me know!  Send e-mail to
whiterabbit@users.sourceforge.net, and the e-mail will be forwarded
on to me.

LINKS
-------------------------------------------------------

Homepage for HackNet:
  http://hacknet.sourceforge.net/

Homepage for NetHack (inspiration for HackNet):
  http://www.nethack.org/
  
Homepage for Crossfire (arcade-style multiplayer Nethack/Gauntlet hybrid):
  http://crossfire.real-time.com/
 
Homepage for MAngband (multiplayer variant of roguelike 'Angband'):
  http://mangband.org/