root/releases/1.6/0p1/CHANGES-8

This is the most current changes file for PennMUSH. Please look it
over; each version contains new things which might significantly affect
the function of your server.

Unlike the older CHANGES files, these changes are reported in
reverse chronological order (most recent first)

[RLM] is Ralph Melton, a prolific Pennhack.
[TAP] is T. Alexander Popiel, a prolific MUSHhack
[AKM] is Alan Kree McElrath, sourcehack for GohsMUSH.

==========================================================================

Version 1.50 patchlevel 14      July 3, 1995

This patchlevel is primarily concerned with bugfixes and patch management.

Maintainer changes:
  * New file 'Patchlevel' tracks mandatory patches to insure that they 
    are applied in the proper order
  * Clearer 'restart' script. [TAP]
  * The indexing script for help/news/etc now creates the topic 'Entries'
    instead of 'Index', to prevent a conflict with 'help index()'.
  * The file hdrs/db.h is now hdrs/mushdb.h, to match Tiny 2.2 and
    because FreeBSD complains about db.h.
  * The links hdrs/dune.h and hdrs/options.h were unnecessary and
    are now removed.
  * The noforking dump messages have been moved to mush.conf

Commands:
  * The @set obj1=attrib1:_obj2/attrib2 form no longer works, as
    it conflicts with general attempts to set attributes that start
    with underscores. Use @cpattr for copying attributes.

Options:
  * EXITS_CONNECT_ROOMS, if defined, prevents rooms with at least one
    exit from being announced to players as "disconnected rooms".
  * RALPH_DEBUG option allows for improved DEBUG flag output. [RLM]
  * When MEM_CHECK is defined, it dumps mem_check info to the
    checkpt.log before each dump.
  * SAFER_PLAYER_NAMES options has been removed. Player names can't
    contain those funny characters, period.

Fixes:
  * Added -D_INCLUDE_AES_SOURCE to hpux hints
  * stdlib.h is now included in eval.c to get atof. This was breaking
    linux MUSHes badly.
  * Linux hints now use BSD signal semantics.
  * Various attempts to fix possibly unusual bugs in compression.
  * The internal TRANSPARENT flag bit macro is now TRANSPARENTED,
    because Solaris defines TRANSPARENT
  * A bug causing setq'd registers to be incorrectly munged has been fixed.
  * @chzone warning messages refer to zone-lock, not elock, if RALPH_LOCKS
    are compiled in.
  * Examining a player who was on a null channel was reported to crash
    one MUSH. Some attempts have been made to fix that problem.
  * The compose.csh script in game/txt has been replaced by 
    compose.sh, which now deals properly with systems which are missing
    perl (gasp!)
  * Configure script hopefully won't die when checking signals on Linux.
  * Fixes to some strange @mail behavior. [RLM]
  * CType in compress_h.c is now unsigned long, not long. [RLM]
  * Fix to converting old maildbs to mail subjects [RLM]
  * Bigram compression could (rarely) cause $commands or ^patterns
    to stop functioning.
  * GoodObject() used to consider db_top to be a valid dbref. It's not.
  * Recycling of objects was broken in pl13 and is now fixed. [RLM]
  * mush.conf can now deal with the FIXED flag as a default flag [RLM]
  * A lot of mem_checks weren't being deleted, especially exec.buff ones.
  * Defining COMPRESSION_TYPE to be 0 (no compression) now works. [TAP]
  * Paranoid dumps no longer stomp out tabs and newlines unnecessarily.
  * Configure now checks for IEEE math compliance, and defines HAS_IEEE_MATH
    which is used by the code to determine if some math functions need
    to be limited.
  * SOLARIS defines have been removed as extraneous.

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

Version 1.50 patchlevel 13      May 29, 1995

Patchlevel 13 was very much a collaborative effort with Ralph Melton
and T. Alexander Popiel, terrific MUSHhacks.

Major user changes:

  * Complete rewrite of locks, which allows for many, many new
    locks, including user-defined locks, with reduced memory usage. [RLM]
  * @mail can now have a subject.

Major maintainer changes:
  * The code now contains ANSI prototypes (if Configure ascertains that
    your compiler likes 'em) for easier debugging.
  * The help, news, and events entries are now managed in subdirectories
    of game/txt/, and automatically indexed.
  * The names.conf file now accepts wildcards
  * New Makefile target 'update' will propagate your options.h/dune.h
    settings into an options.h.dist/dune.h.dist template, ask you
    whether you want to define any newly-introduced options, ask
    you if you want to remove any obsoleted options, and write out
    new options.h/dune.h files.
  * Improvements to the autoconfiguration scripts, which now generate
    a config.h and confmagic.h file in the top-level directory. These
    headers tell the code what kinds of features are available.
    Accordingly, the old hdrs/config.h header file has been renamed 
    hdrs/conf.h
  * The 'whisper_loudness' config directive in mush.conf sets the
    probability that a noisy whisper will be noticed in the room. 
  * If the standard Huffman attribute compression gives you trouble, you
    can use the COMPRESSION_TYPE define to use the older bigram
    compression system, now auto-tuning, or no compression at all.
  * The TINY22_BOOLEANS option causes the MUSH's boolean functions
    (and(), or(), not()) to be compatible with TinyMUSH 2.2. In Tiny 2.2,
    only non-zero integers are "true". In PennMUSH's default, non-zero
    integers, non-negative db#'s, and strings are "true". You pick.
  * NO_NUKE_SAFE_PLAYER prevents @nuke from working (for Wizards) on
    players set SAFE. You have to unSAFE them first.

New functions:

  * MWHO() function is like LWHO() but always evaluates as if the
    enactor were an unprivileged player. Useful for globals.
  * ISDAYLIGHT() returns 1 if it's daylight savings time, 0 if not.
    By Dave Sisson
  * CWHO() now returns a list of dbrefs, NOT NAMES. Much more flexible.
  * ITER() now can take a fourth argument, which is the output delimiter.
    You can have any string shoved between the output elements instead 
    of a space (for example, a %r).
  * TABLE() for presenting lists in rows.

New commands:

  * Players can connect with 'ch name password', which is just like
    'cd', but connects hidden. Activated by defining DARK_CONNECT
  * @warnings now allows players to exclude warnings by using
    @warnings me=!warning. [RLM]
  * @ps/quick now displays only the summary line of @ps for players.
  * @decomp can take a /tf switch, which makes its output emulate
    the 'FugueEdit' object (originally by van@TinyTIM) which
    lets you use tf to edit attributes. Idea by Lord Argon.

Minor changes:

  * The 'news code' and 'news changes' entries are now in help.txt,
    so you don't need to update your MUSH's news.txt files when you upgrade.
  * In an ambiguous situation (i.e., @dest foo when you carry
    foobar and foofoo), @dest will no longer pick one at random. It'll fail.
  * #0 is now evaluated as TRUE in the context of boolean functions,
    because it's a valid dbref (applies only #ifndef TINY22_BOOLEANS)
  * haspower() allows players to see powers on things they control,
    even with HASPOWER_RESTRICTED defined. [RLM]
  * O-attributes which evaluate to nothing are no longer displayed. [AKM]
  * Paranoid dumps no longer smash \r and \n.
  * @mvattr no longer deletes the original attribute if the copies fail.
  * Secure now stomps out ^'s
  * The getrandom() function has been rewritten. [RLM]
  * It's now a lot harder to have Guest and Wiz/Roy set on the same
    player. Players shouldn't be able to connect to Wiz/Roy Guests anymore.
  * HARSH_GUEST is now a lot harsher. Guests pretty much can't modify
    the database except to lock/unlock things they control.
  * players who are on a priv'd channel may speak/leave
    even after they lose their privs. [RLM]
  * Xenix options removed from options.h.dist, since the Xenix code
    isn't supported anymore anyway.
  * The size of MAX_COMMAND_LEN (and therefore all derived buffers)
    has been doubled.
  * Doing a 'make' from the src/ directory will now call the top-level
    makefile. This helps those who use emacs (like Ralph, who came up
    with this) and M-x compile from the srcdir.
  * @version shows compilation flags.
  * Admin WHO no longer wraps lines. Sitenames are truncated as needed. [TAP]

Fixes

  * Repaging a player with a multi-word name works correctly now.
  * Players with the tport_anything power can teleport FIXED things. 
  * @map works as documented again.
  * Paranoid @dumps don't give so many spurious bad attribute warnings.
  * ZMO elock checking now uses PLAYER_START and MASTER_ROOM instead
    of #0 and #2. [RLM]
  * @pemit/list now replaces ## with the target's db#, as the help says.
  * Subtle bug in exit matching fixed. [RLM]
  * escape() and secure() no longer parse their arguments.
  * The asterisk-line separators on the nologin messages have been
    prettified slightly, at Tigger's suggestion
  * Some systems didn't deal well with overflowing @doing and @poll's.
    Dave Sisson patched it.
  * Error in bsd.c when compiling with DARK_CONNECT but without ROYALTY
    fixed. (Reported by Suud@Gohs)
  * hasflag, andflags, and orflags patched to prevent mortals from
    using them to see mdark flags [RLM]
  * Type mismatch in warnings.c fixed [RLM]
  * fun_lcstr() and fun_ucstr() have been changed slightly in order to
    support unices like MachTen which appear to define tolower() as 
    a macro meaning (isupper(x) ? _tolower(x) : (x)), and were getting
    hosed by the tolower(*ap++) call. Bug reported by Adrick.
  * It was possible to overflow the buffers in do_log by having a 
    Wizard do @fo me=think lnum(5000), for example. No longer, I hope.
    Bug report and suggested fix by Adrick.
  * Removed an old bit of code that broke compiles using original mailer
  * The restart script is a little smarter about preserving databases.
  * Fixed a bug that caused ALWAYS_PARANOID to dump core.

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

Version 1.50 patchlevel 12      March 23, 1995

Major changes:

  * The matching routines in match.c have been rewritten to be
    reentrant, which fixes some subtle but important bugs.
    If you have hacks which use the old matching routines, you'll
    have to rewrite them - see the comments at the beginning of
    match.c
  * New Makefile target 'customize' for setting up customized
    per-mush subdirectories for those who run multiple mushes.
  * An untested DELETE_POWERS define in options.h, which will remove
    powers from a database, to make it easier to switch to TinyMUSH

New flags/powers:

  * Things with the Pemit_All power can @pemit to HAVEN/ulocked players.
    Useful for globals.

--- Fixes ---
  
  * Previously, passing the elock of a ZoneMaster player allowed 
    control over *all* the ZM's objects, including the ZM player itself.
    Players are no longer controllable this way.
  * Incorporated patch for compiling without CREATION_TIMES defined
  * Incorporated Ralph Melton's patch to warnings.c to fix core dump
    with multiple exits warning.
  * Nobody can @tel rooms any more. New code for @tel'ing exits has
    been written, however, and players may now @tel exits they control
    from rooms they control to rooms they control.
  * Z_TEL bug: players could defeat Z_TEL by entering an object and
    @tel'ing from there. Reported by Ralph Melton.
  * Bug in puppet checks in @teleport fixed.
  * Players in exactly 15 levels of container could defeat NO_TEL. Fixed.
  * The warnings from compiling src/IDENT/id_parse.c are fixed.
  * Andrew Molitor's patch to prevent stupid comparison functions with
    sortby() causing infinite loops or crashes.
  * Some improved help topics by Ralph Melton