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ao-mud is a spellbook of well-commented atomic bash scripts that each do one thing. we are building semantic building blocks for an autonomously-evolving digital spellcasting language.
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ao-mud/README.md

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ao-mud

ao-mud is a project to make the terminal easier for novice users by narrativizing it as a Multi-User Dungeon, or M.U.D.

Principles:

  • story first - make the world make sense, and that will tell us what to code
  • playtest-driven development - try to use it, fail fast and iterate; it has to be fun
  • POSIX-compatible scripts - maximally compatible across platforms and weird nested environments
  • immanence - the game is here, a meaningful virtual space in the terminal
  • immediacy - the game is everywhere, not a separate mode
  • pedagogy - collecting best practices and making them easy to use, learn, remember, and teach/share
  • sharpen the saw - gradually improving the architecture of the tech stack
  • smarter conventions - we can evolve the terminal and make it easier to teach by migrating to higher-order semantics (new words)

Architecture

ao-mud is also ao-bash, an attempt to immanentize the AO to the terminal for a native un-AO experience that requires no database.

Some architectural guidelines:

  • Make many small, atomic scripts that are almost as atomic as possible
  • The smallest logical size is a semantic unit: (e.g., read-magic handles both reading all attributes or one named attribute, could abstract read-all-magic and read-all-magic but it's semantically parsimonious to combine them)
  • Make each script work either sourced or executed by using the BASH_SOURCE idiom (will be included after conversion to POSIX)

The Beginning of Your AO Adventure...

What is the Autonomous Organization, what does it mean? This mystery drives your quest.

We all sense something is wrong with the world. We all want to ask the same question.

The AO is the answer to this question.

Along the way, you will learn to use the Unix terminal, and you will gain special terminal upgrades. Most people don't believe that UI upgrades can be game-changing, but with cybernetics and a little magic, anything is possible.

Three Paths of Knowledge

On your AO adventure, there are three different tutorials which gradually unlock the powers of the terminal. Choose your class wisely:

  • Sorcerer: The Path of Sorcery is the path of casual power. Sorcerers learn how to wield powerful spells early on, but they don't know how they work. Sorcerers trade words and understanding and remember this knowledge in their memory.

  • Wizard: The Path of Wizardry is a path of careful learning. Wizards start by learning the true names of bash commands, and learn to assemble spells gradually. Wizards trade spells on pages (bash scripts) and save them in their spellbook (spells folder).

  • Alchemist: The Path of Art is an oral tradition. Find a bash alchemist who can teach you the elements and the ways of alchemy.

Loading Saved Games

ao-mud contains unlockable menus and terminal shortcuts that make using the terminal easier and more fun. To skip ahead and turn some of these features on without unlocking them in tutorial mode, you can use a Save Code that you received from an earlier playthrough. To use a Save Code, open the AO main menu, select "Load Saved Game", enter your Save Code, and press Enter.

How to Begin

To start your AO adventure, type ./ao in this directory.