As it just so happens, your timing couldn't be better. I've been working on DL for a long time and yes I still use telnet for nearly everything I do. Why couldn't your timing be better? Because a number of things have "clicked" for me regarding DL lately. Macros is an excellent example of that (and in fact, they tie into this latest crazy idea, read on). One of the things I've been most concerned with is security. Everything done over telnet is in clear text. That means if you are playing from any public location, there is a fair chance someone will be able to "sniff" your password (in practice, it doesn't happen that often, but it *DOES* happen). I've finally figured out how I can get everyone an encrypted connection to DL -- build a DL Client Proxy Server. A little piece of software that runs on one of my computers here (probably not DL) that allows you to connect to it securely and then it passes the information on to DL right next to it. Now, once I've got a client/server proxy that understands what is going on from both sides, that opens up a world of possibilities. I can run the proxy on a computer using port 443 (or 80) so that it looks kind of like encrypted web traffic. That could help bypass some firewalls and filters. Ok, ok, so there is the client proxy server... but nobody has a client that can encrypt the data properly... well, I've decided to start working on an official DL2 client. There will be software to download with this client, it will not be web based. That said, the software you'll need to download is virtually completed. Once you download and run the package, it will connect up to the DL Client Proxy Server which will provide it with information about how to display the windows and such. It is still very much a work in progress, I've only put about a week or so into it (though I saved a lot of time because I worked on other similar projects in the past and got to reuse a fair amount of code). Here are a couple of screen shots.
This is when you first fire it up. In this screen shut, the DL Client Proxy Server is shutdown.
At this point, I've brought up the proxy server and you can see it has formed an encrypted connection to DL and has created an area for commands and output (as well as a menubar with 'file' in it). Keep in mind, this is just proof of concept mostly, the final product should be more polished.
Once I've got this working right, what does this mean? It means we'll be able to write macros that could play sounds on your computer or provide some type of graphic or display. We could make icons for spells and have them blink when they begin to wear out. We could have tabs that allow you to look at different information (such as a group/party tab that allows you to see the basic information you see by typing the group command) so you could watch it during combat. We'll be able to make it so you can edit a post just like you do on this form. Want to change something you previously wrote? No problem, use your mouse to grab the scrollbar, take it where you want it, click where you want to edit and change it. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to edit room descriptions and even macros like that?! Heck, if we wanted to we could build in card games and all sorts of things. I currently don't really envision such things, but we'll see. It's been a long journey for me and I'm really just starting to get into "GUI" programming. It requires a lot more thought about layout and sizing but I'm starting to get it. These captures are from Windows, but in theory it should all work on Linux and Apple also. I think this will once again take DL to a whole new level, I find myself excited by the possibilities...
Best regards to all,
--Nezmar
