MCCAINKW at DUVM.BITNET (Kate McCain) writes:
>OK -- I'll bite. what's a MOO. (Besides a good example for my pre-sophomore
>information science students on the problems of acronyms, initialisms and
>insider communication.)
I posted a rather long review of the use of MOOs by biologists in
bionet.general a couple of days ago, in which I defined the term.
Also, Rob Harper posted an introduction to MOOs a few weeks earlier in
bionet.users.addresses. If you are interested in the concept and its
utility in addition to just the definition, you might like to look at these.
Briefly:
MOO == MUD, Object Oriented.
MUD == Multi-User Dungeon
Dungeon stands for a category of text games in which one moves around
a virtual environment (a "dungeon"). Examples include the games
produced for many home computers by Infocom, including Zork, and the
ubiquitous game 'Adventure'. (I have seen 'Adventure' on a dedicated
Wang word processing system listed as a diagnostic!).
The 'Object Oriented' in MOO refers to the fact that the environment
includes a built-in object oriented programming environment with which
you can program the environment. (This is *NOT* the language the MOO
is written in, but more like the macro language of Lotus 1,2,3). It
is this programmability we are making use of to squeeze every last bit
of fun out of the game environment to convert it into yet another
tool for the most calvanist of scientists.
If you cannot find my review, email me and I will email you a copy.
--
David Steffen
Department of Cell Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston TX 77030
Telephone = (713) 798-6655, FAX = (713) 790-0545
Internet = steffen at bcm.tmc.edu
