Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!lll-winken!uunet!tektronix!reed!odlin
From: odlin@reed.UUCP (Iain Odlin)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.games.bugs
Subject: Re: The patches posted to comp.sources.games
Message-ID: <12627@reed.UUCP>
Date: 2 May 89 09:44:14 GMT
References: <1501@scicom.AlphaCDC.COM> <12619@reed.UUCP> <12624@reed.UUCP>
Reply-To: odlin@reed.UUCP (Iain Odlin)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Atreides' House of Exotic Architecture
Lines: 40

In article <12624@reed.UUCP> odlin@reed.UUCP I write:
>  -The file order.c now contains two lines which cause the compiler to choke
>   on the ASCII value of a null character.

  The null character turned out to be a machine dependent idea of what the
  octal value of the ESC key was.  Just put \033 (for ESC) between the
  quotes and you're set.  (Actually, I used \041, which is the '!' key!)

>  -Every command which depends on rst.c no longer works.

  This, upon further mucking with, turns out not to be the case.  They just
  don't work in both the way they used to and the way the docs say they do
  anymore.  You *MUST* be 'cs'ed into the ship's scope for the commands to
  work.  This is certainly a "fix" I don't care much for...

>  -The load command now displays the wrong numbers when you use the ? option.

  The problem is still unidentified.  It is perplexing, however...

>  -The game starts you out with zero population now.  "Boy, what a growth
>   vector!"

  This is not as bad as it first seemed.  You *DO* start with no population.
  However, population spontaneously generates after a turn...

  BTW, the power command displays an inaccurate value for population.
  That, and there is no documentation for the power command.

>  -The help command now locks the game up some of the time with a "sh -c"

  This seems to be because I had my TERM environment variable set to vt100
  while on a rainbow.

  Interestingly enough, the patches didn't fix the compiler error in
  makeplanet.c...
-- 
----------------------------------Iain Odlin----------------------------------
                  Box 1014, Reed College, Portland OR, 97202
                odlin@reed -or- {ogccse, tektronix}!reed!odlin
                    "History is written by the survivors."