Why use POL?

[tekproxy]

I'm suprised they haven't created an option that purges all discussions of open/closed source philosophy. I giggle every time there's a new one.

[Marilla]

A little off topic, everyone?

I dunno.. the topic is, "Why Use POL?" All seems pretty much on-topic to me... though your post isn't.

[Exar Kun]

Now the changes I was refering to were the basic directory structure changes in the POL Distro. I have been here since POL 92. Well, been scripting in eScript since then and it seems like with every major release there are changes to the directory structure which forces us to relearn where things are. I can understand the addition of new directories for new packages and the like but now we have commands moved to a package and now each package has its own include and config directory.

Yeah maybe I'm nit-picking but some of us are used to things being in a certain place and what with the major changes to the emulator and having to learn the new functions therein it can be overwhelming to have to relearn organization of the Distro as well.

I work for a company that builds black-box controllers for the metal forming industry. We've been around 28 years and we dominate the market, thus our equipment is very prolific. Recently, we rolled out a new product that really obsoletes at least one of our major lines.

During the initial development, and even now, we struggle with the fact that we made the decision to be as backwards compatible with our old equipment as we possibly could. It has created a myriad of support nightmares for us, and continues to COST US MONEY to this day.

My experience is that users WILL learn the new way. They'll complain, because no one likes change, but after they achieve a comfort level with the "new system", they become cheerleaders for it.

It was frustrating to get used to 092, then get hit in the head with 095, but I'm VERY pleased with the change now.

I too am here to stay however. I will continue using POL for as long as I run a shard. If POL disappears I doubt I would go to a new emu. There truly aren't any that compare with POL.

Me too. I'll stick with POL forever. I might freeze my server at 095, but I won't go to a new system. As a "hobby" programmer, I don't have the time or money to go and learn enough programming to dive into RunUO or something else that requires a larger understanding of <insert programming language here>.

POL is great because eScript is easy to learn and use. It's forgiving, too. Once a scripter has any real experience using it, eScript is actually "fun".

[Aeros]

Hey guys,

Those of you that remember me - long time since I was here, been quiet for quite awhile Although in all that time, I've still been running our shard, together with my fellow admins.

I started using POL95 in 2003. Back then, we used the POL95 core + distro, and started customizing everything, rewriting most of the systems. I loved the way everything was so customizable - for me, that was one of the major plusses. Another was the very handy escript guide from Racalac - quick and simple to learn, simple to use.

We switched over to POL96 in 2004, I think. Was naturally followed by some major modifications in the codeset, but with POL96 came even more customizable features. Ever since then, we've been moving/upgrading at the same pace as the POL devs, upgrading our core whenever a new one came out. And still, with each new release, comes new customizable features (am I sounding like a stuck record yet? )

So, whats the point of this post? The fact that I will never use any other emulator for a UO shard. We briefly tried to switch over to RunUO in 2004 for experiment's sake, and it was horrible. So, kudos to the POL96 developers, keep up the good work I, for one, will definitely always be a POL-supporter.