DGD, Dworkin's Game Driver (at one time called Dworkin's Generic Driver), is an
LPMud
LPMud, abbreviated LP, is a family of multi-user dungeon (MUD) server software. Its first instance, the original LPMud game driver, was developed in 1989 by Lars Pensjö (the LP in LPMud). LPMud was innovative in its separation of the MUD infrastr ...
server written by Felix A. "Dworkin" Croes.
DGD pioneered important technical innovations in
MUD
Mud (, or Middle Dutch) is loam, silt or clay mixed with water. Mud is usually formed after rainfall or near water sources. Ancient mud deposits hardened over geological time to form sedimentary rock such as shale or mudstone (generally cal ...
s, particularly disk-based object storage, full
world persistence,
separation of concerns
In computer science, separation of concerns (sometimes abbreviated as SoC) is a design principle for separating a computer program into distinct sections. Each section addresses a separate '' concern'', a set of information that affects the code o ...
between driver and
mudlib
A multi-user dungeon (MUD, ), also known as a multi-user dimension or multi-user domain, is a multiplayer real-time virtual world, usually text-based or storyboarded. MUDs combine elements of role-playing games, hack and slash, player versus ...
, runtime morphism, automatic garbage collection, lightweight objects and
LPC-to-
C compilation.
History
DGD's first public release was on August 12, 1993.
The first publicly available MUD to use DGD was ''PaderMUD'' (later ''
Xyllomer''), in December 1993.
The original primary development MUD for DGD was ''The Pattern'',
referencing
The Chronicles of Amber
''The Chronicles of Amber'' is a series of fantasy novels by American writer Roger Zelazny. The main series consists of two story arcs, each five novels in length. Additionally, there are a number of Amber short stories and other works. Whil ...
(like Croes's pseudonym Dworkin, which refers to
Dworkin Barimen). It was taken offline sometime before February 1997.
During the 1994–1995 academic year, DGD was a core element in a master's thesis at the
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
KU Leuven (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) is a Catholic research university in the city of Leuven, Belgium. Founded in 1425, it is the oldest university in Belgium and the oldest university in the Low Countries.
In addition to its main camp ...
. As part of the thesis work, a deterministic mechanism for handling arrays and mappings passed between objects was devised.
In December 1995, exclusive rights to commercial use of DGD were acquired by BeeHive Internet Technologies, Inc., which sold an exclusive license to
ichat
iChat (previously iChat AV) is a discontinued instant messaging software application developed by Apple Inc. for use on its Mac OS X operating system. It supported instant text messaging over XMPP/Jingle or OSCAR ( AIM) protocol, audio and video ...
in January 1996. ichat used DGD to establish the first Yahoo! chatrooms. ichat then became Acuity Corporation, which sold a sublicense to Skotos in February 1999. Skotos used DGD to create a series of online games. Acuity Corporation was later acquired by Quintus Corporation. In March 2001, the exclusive license was terminated due to the bankruptcy of that company.
In 2002, DGD was used for academic research into persistent distributed object systems.
In August 2005, DGD's commercial use rights were assigned back to Dworkin B.V., Croes's company.
On February 3, 2010, DGD 1.4 was released as
open-source software
Open-source software (OSS) is Software, computer software that is released under a Open-source license, license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and Software distribution, distribute the software an ...
.
See also
*
Application server
An application server is a server that hosts applications or software that delivers a business application through a communication protocol. For a typical web application, the application server sits behind the web servers.
An application ser ...
*
Comparison of application servers
This list compares the features and functionality of application servers, grouped by the hosting environment that is offered by that particular application server.
C
* Enduro/X A middleware platform for distributed transaction processing, base ...
References
External links
Official web siteWiki*
{{MUDs
MUD servers