Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!burl!codas!killer!billw
From: billw@killer.UUCP
Newsgroups: rec.games.hack,comp.sources.bugs
Subject: NetHack Woes
Message-ID: <2361@killer.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 7-Dec-87 01:15:53 EST
Article-I.D.: killer.2361
Posted: Mon Dec  7 01:15:53 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 12-Dec-87 08:40:48 EST
Reply-To: billw@killer.UUCP (Bill Wisner)
Organization: HASA
Lines: 40
Xref: utgpu rec.games.hack:1692 comp.sources.bugs:506
Summary: NetHack 2.2 on System V? Right after I walk on water.

When, when, oh when will someone finally make nethack REALLY work on a System
V machine?

At 1.4, I hacked on nethack to try to get it running on killer, a 3B2 that
at the time was on system V release 2.0.5 (we've since upgraded to 3.1).
At the time, I beat up mercilessly on termcap.c for an hour or so and the
program pretty much worked.

termcap.c is still a mess. Whomever claimed that the program does, indeed
function if TERMINFO is defined has rocks in his head. I have to go through
the file and change half of the tgetwhatever calls because the wrong 2-letter
ID codes are used. The delay_output is a joke (1.4 just printed the string
$<50> instead of padding) which should not even be there for System V users:
terminfo has a delay_output built in.

Well, I have actually gotten it do compile. I have to manually set the value
of XD to a linefeed, since cursor down doesn't work (seems to do a return
instead) and xd isn't even known to terminfo. Let's give nethack a try.

Looks fine for about ten seconds. Then you start to REALLY abuse the program:
you try to move. Forget about a nicely-formatted screen. And I seem to know
what all of my objects are. Identify? Who needs it? I rather strongly doubt
that this is a new 'feature' in 2.2.

My next bitch, pardon my Francais, may be a perfectly legitimate bug. When
I walk into my dog, I see "You stop to avoid hitting ." Certainly not the
most meaningful output in such a situation.

Well, I'm done ranting at the various people who's put their two cents worth
into the game. I'm sure all the new mods are quite nice, but I'm damned if I
can use them.

A plea to Mike Stephenson: please, PLEASE! get a real, working compile-time
option for System V.

A plea to anyone who has compiled this monster on a 3B2: hello, friend.. let's
talk. Really. My address will be right beneath the dotted line --
-- 
Bill Wisner, HASA "A" Division		..{codas,ihnp4}!killer!billw
"I am not an economist. I am an honest man."