					Last Update, March 6, 1990

Congratulations on selecting a quality "Mass-Neotek (TM)" Robot for
your multiuser exploration needs.  This short, pleasant brochure is
meant to familiarize you with the basic features and requirements of
your purchase.

If you have memory files from an older model, please note the existence
of a simple, pleasant tool called mn6cvt that you can use to convert
older format files to the new, aesthetically improved Maas-Neotek release
Six style file format.

1. Making a home for your robot

	Before you unpack your robot, you must make a place for him to
	live.  He needs three things:

	1. A tinymud character and password.  Create a new tinymud
	   character with an appropriate name and password.  The robot
	   is shipped named "Colin", and there is a colin character
	   already created on DAISY.LEARNING.CS.CMU.EDU, port 4201.
	   You should pick a different name if you wish to do more
	   than a quick demonstration of Maas-Neotek robotics.

	2. A home room.  This can be Limbo, but you will probably wish
	   to create a new room and link your robot's character to this
	   new room.  Your robot will always start by going "home" and
	   checking the room name to learn where his home is (that means
	   you can move your robot's home without clearing his map).

	3. A desk.  Create a desk for your robot, lock it to the robot's
	   character, and drop it in the robot's home room.  The desk
	   will have a sign about the robot's current status.

	Note, if you do not understand TinyMUD well enough to perform
	these steps, you should not be running a robot.  Learn more
	about the TinyMUD Universe itself, first.

2. Configuring your robot

	After creating the robot's character, you must set the robot's
	name. The default shipping name is "Colin", but you should
	definitely pick a new name.  Rename the file "colin.c" and
	"colin.h" to the appropriate file names, so the name is the
	lower case version of the name you created in step 1.
	
	Then edit files name.h and name.c to change all instances
	of 'Colin' to 'Name', and 'colin' to 'name'.  You should also
	set the MALE define variable to 1 for male or 0 for female.
	Many parts of the code depend on the name being stored in
	lower case EVEN IF your robot's character's name is capitalized.
	Be careful.

	You must also change the DEFINES in name.h to have appropriate
	messages for FAIL, OFAIL, and DESCRIPTIONS for active and
	inactive states.

	Lastly, you must edit the Makefile and change all occurrences
	of <colin> to <name>.  Once you have edited the <name.h> file,
	type "make <name>" and the Makefile included will build the
	executable.

3. Running your robot

	Note: If you have a pre-6.0 version Map or Players file,
	idenfited by the header line starting with "Gloria", you
	need to convert the file formats, first.  Type:

		% make mn6cvt
		% mv name.map name.old.map
		% mn6cvt < name.old.map > name.map
		% mv name.players name.old.players
		% mn6cvt < name.old.players > name.players

	    You may see some error messages, but mostly they concern
	    the memory overwrite bug, and the resulting file will
	    still work.

	To run your robot, you need only type

		% colin >& colin.log &		(use the name you chose)

	But there are a few options that you may wish to specify:

	-d		debug		(lots of output)
	-e		exploring	(you probably want this)
	-g		generous	(gives away money)
	-n		noisy		(disable quiet mode)
	-p		paging		(allows others to page colin)
	-t		terse		(minimal logging output)
	-D		descriptions	(use room descriptions for exits)
	-T		testing		(connect to stdin/stdout)

	These options are usually set in <colin.h>, but may be
	specified on the command line:

	-H'host'	Host to connect to game
	-P<port>	Port number
	-M'mapfile'	Map file name
	-F'playfile'	File for player information

	A Cshell script run-colin.csh is included.  This script loops
	repeatedly starting the colin process whenever it dies.  This
	script also directs the output into log files named by starting
	date.  To use it, type:

		% run-colin.csh >& colin.log &

4. Additional Documentation

	File robot.manual contains additional information about
	controlling your robot.

5. World specificity

	colin as shipped is somewhat dependent on the TinyMUD Universe
	as it exists on DAISY.LEARNING.CS.CMU.EDU, mainly in terms of
	some hard-wired room names (especially "The Town Square" and
	the Library).  To port colin to another game may involve
	some modification to these "special" locations.  You will also
	want to change the list of "Landmarks" in robot.c, functions
	islandmark() and inlibrary().

6. Bugs

	There is a major known problem with Maas-Neotek code:
	occasionally the malloced storage in the player or room
	database is overwritten by a contents or dialog message.
	This will cause a room or player to seem to "disappear"
	from the robot's memory.  THe robot will recover, but the
	resulting "junk" may be left in the map or player file.
	
	If you find this bug, let me know.

7. License

	This code is provided freely and without restrictions.  I do
	ask that you be courteous in your use of it, and specifically
	ask that you do not change the code to remove the built-in
	delays between executing commands.  Also please do not use your
	robot to harrass other players.  Killing non-sleeping players
	is most likely considered harrassment.

8. Availablility

	The latest version of Maas-Neotek source code is availble on
	
	HOST:	nl.cs.cmu.edu [128.2.222.56]
	DIR:	/usr/mlm/ftp		(type "cd /usr/mlm/ftp")
	FILE:	robot.tar.Z
	MODE:	binary

Dr. Michael L. Mauldin (Fuzzy)		School of Computer Science
ARPA: Michael.Mauldin@NL.CS.CMU.EDU	Carnegie Mellon University
Phone: (412) 268-3065			Pittsburgh, PA  15213-3890
