We at Mudlet like making user-friendly stuff! I hope you’ve noticed that with Mudlets UI… But as always, time is limited, we do this on our spare time for free, and there is always room for improvement.
If you’re a new user to Mudlet (let’s say you started using Mudlet from scratch since February), what are some things that confused you at first or still confuse you? Please post in comments, we’d love to improve things!
Persistent variables! Or the lack thereof!
I’d say one of the biggest bits of confusion is the various API mismatches. Example: 1.1.1 is the only ‘released’ version, however anyone that dips into the forums will find a slew of wonderful new things that exist in 2.x. Assuming you find the existing 2.x-rc build you start to make use of some of those features and realize many of them still only exist in some unreleased version :) This isn’t a rant (honest!), it just isn’t always clear what is truly available for use “right now” vs. “soon ™” – and the existing docs are mostly still 1.1.1 based.
Some of this confusion might also stem from the fact that support for some muds is simply more advanced than for others (ie., IRE support is superb it appears, but that doesn’t always translate to the more generic cases – especially for non-ATCP/GMCP/whatever muds).
Er… I suppose most of this relates to mapping support, as that is where a lot of this shows up. Which makes sense, as 2.x’s focus IS the mapper.
Have to agree with Ephram, not being able to see my variables always messes me up on stuff.
My biggest issue has less to do with Mudlet itself, and more to do with the lack of any kind of good tutorial documentation. The manual listed is, frankly, terribly done, full of typos, missing pieces, and generally difficult to really make sense of for someone unfamiliar with coding/the language.
All tutorials are video screencasts, because they are easier to follow along. Check out mudlet.org/media.
We’d love help in transferring the manual from mudlet.org/asciidoc/manual.html to the wiki. This is a free and open-source project, everyone is more than welcome to help!
Started using mudlet a few days ago. Things that confused me:
1. having to activate (after defining) my keyboard shortcuts. Maybe default to activating?
2. After hiding the main menu bar, not knowing how to every get it to show again (without exiting mudlet by pressing the [x].
That is it, so far :-).
Defaults to full screen view but sometimes cannot get it to exit or get it to default back to the normal view. Also cannot have multiple connections to the same mud using same settings (have to create another instance for each character)
The select profile window is confusing in the sense that I’ve no idea when I can edit an entry, and when not. It has something to do with profiles being loaded or not, but its not clear how to unload a profile.
The blue font seems to suggest I cannot change it, but then I find I can remove the mud address (but not the mud name).
So yes, confusing :-).
Thanks for that comment! Loaded profile = connected. To unload, you’d essentially restart Mudlet or close the tab. I’ll update the notification to make that clearer.