Building the Software Infrastructure for Domisilica

Sponsor	Gregory Abowd abowd@cc.gatech.edu 380 CRB and 240 CCB
Area	HCI, Software Engineering and Future Computing Environments

Problem
The Domisilica project is based on a programmable MUD called LambdaMOO. A lot of what we have done over the past year is to build some infrastructure to open up the MUD for Web-based interaction. In this mini-project, we invite you to help us build some further infrastructure to help the project grow and become easier for programmers to use.

There is the need for a generic event-handling interface to help connect events in the MUD to arbitrary behaviors that we might want to program. For example, we would like an event such as "coke put in fridge 2" to be sent to all of the correct java objects at the right time.

As another example, in trying to provide a graphical front-end through the Web for the Domisilica MUD, we have been able to attach graphical representations to MUD objects. When a traveller enters a room, the graphical representations are displayed and selecting them launches arbitrary Java code. One addition to this GUI interface is the ability to more easily build maps to Domisilica that help travelers navigate around the virtual village.

Some undergraduates working with Mark Guzdial have provided the ability to program a MUD without restrictions on the programming language used. Currently, Domisilica programming is restricted to LamdaMOO for MUD programming and Java for GUI programming. You could in this project investigate the multi-language MUD programming topic and provide similar hooks for Domisilica.

Currently, there is very little concern for security in Domisilica. We need to have some software infrastructure, perhaps in the form of secure sockets, that provides for a better user authentication system. Dr. Ken Calvert would be able to advise students on this particular topic. Background

Sit down with Dr. Abowd, Jen Mankoff and possible Dr. Calvert to determine what interest you have so that we can point you to the correct information on the Domisilica Web pages or elsewhere.

Deliverables

You must create a Web page off of the Domisilica Web space that describes the piece of software infrastructure you want to provide and a rationale for why it would be useful in Domisilica.
Provide documentation and source code for the work you do.

Evaluation
This problem, as written is fairly open-ended. That is why it is important for interested students to talk to Dr. Abowd or Jen Mankoff to decide upon a specific task before spending much time. The result of that initial meeting will set expectations for evaluation.