ICU MUD - Idaho Collaborative UML MUD

Overview

• Idaho is short of "University of Idaho".
• Collaborative refers to a property of allowing multiple users to work together, both synchronously (at the same time; in real-time) and asynchronously (in alternating or non-overlapping time periods)
• UML is the Unified Modeling Language. It is a blobby-diagram language. You have to learn it for CS 383 anyhow. A tool for working with UML would be a drawing tool.
• MUD refers to Multi-User Domain, or Multi-User Dungeon. It refers to a particular genre of collaborative on-line application (MUD, or MOO).
• Because UML drawing tools and MUDs are not related, this project is a "mashup" or an attempt to create a new entity that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Rationale

• Jeffery promised the NSF a collaborative UML drawing tool for his collaborative virtual environment, CVE (at cve.sf.net)
• It would be used in classes just like this one
• It would support distance education, and help instructors provide remote office hours and remote lab assistance.
• The MUD is a structured chat environment where users move from chat room to chat room. It is a non-graphical virtual environment.
• UML is inherently graphical, but UML diagrams are inherently incomplete without substantial support explanatory prose, which students usually omit. The MUD provides the place where that support prose can be discussed.
• Building a software project actually feels like constructing the MUD, not just running around inside it.
• 2D and 3D graphical MUD's are the forefathers of MMO's. It would be cruel and unusual of me to tell you to build an MMO from scratch, and there is a separate course for that (CS 428 games and virtual environs)
• In my perfect fantasy world, ICU MUD would interoperate smoothly with, and constitute an extension of, the CVE virtual environment.
• The TCP-based network protocol we use will be compatible with CVE's protocol.

Flavor

+--------+ +---------------------+ * | Client |------>| Component |<-----------------------------+ +--------+ +---------------------+ | | Operation() | | | Add(Component) | | | Remove(Component) | | | GetChild(int) | | +---------------------+ | # | | | +----------+--------------+ | | | | +------+------+ +----------+----------+ children | | Leaf | | Composite |O-----------+ +-------------+ +---------------------+ | Operation() | | Operation() | +-------------+ | Add(Component) | | Remove(Component) | | GetChild(int) | +---------------------+

Now mash in: text adventures (every class is a room with a text description and class elements are items in the room), IRC/IM chat (you can see and chat with other users) and Eliza (you can chat with class components) and you have something pretty weird and interesting.

Informal Requirements

1. Support collaborative UML drawing
2. Allow users to browse around within their UML-based software projects; provide a focus of attention and a sense of location
3. Provide real-time awareness of others online; not just who is on-line but what they are doing, and where
4. ... many more to come

Where to Start?