tintin++ on OS X

Finally got tintin++ working on OS X! I think it's more to do with Apple switching to the bash shell than anything else. I did this on OS X 10.3.3, but this should work under any version of OS X 10.3. Pre-10.3 installations use the tcsh shell instead of the bash shell. tintin++ reportedly does work under tcsh, but it needs some special configuration to make it work (I've tried many times but always failed). Also note I am a unix novice and this is written for people like me

What is tintin?
tintin++ is a mud client for unix-based operating systems. It features triggers, aliases, tickers, paths, variables, gagging, and many other advanced features.

Getting the software
The first thing you will need is a compiler. Most users of OS X wouldn't know a compiler if they tripped over one, so it's not included in a default install. To get your compiler you will need to download the OS X Developer Tools (also known as Xcode 1.1). This is avalable at the Apple Developer Connection (free registration required). Note that the Xcode package is approximately 600 megabytes in size - we only need a tiny piece of it but this is the easiest way to get it). Note: recently-purchased Macs may come with an OS X Developer Tools CD.

Next you will need a unix package known as readline-4.3. This is available here.

Finally you will need the tintin++ package. The original tintin++ (v1.86) does not seem to be developed anymore (and the old homepage is dead), but my buddy Scandum has been working on updated version (v1.91) which is available at here.

Once you have all the software, you're ready to go!

Installing everything
1. Mount the Xcode disk-image. Launch the installer, follow the on-screen instructions for a default install.
2. Launch Disk Utility and repair permissions! This is recommended after installing any OS X system software.
3. Unpack the readline.tar and tintin.tar.gz packages by dropping them onto Stuffit Expander (installed by default with OS X). This will produce two folders, one called readline-4.3 and one called tt.
4. Copy the readline-4.3 and tt folders into your home folder.
5. Launch Terminal (inside /Applications/Utilities/).
6. Now you're going to compile readline. In the terminal, type the following:

cd readline-4.3
./configure
make
make install

You may get a couple of errors, but don't worry, you've just installed readline (enough of it for tintin anyway!). Congratulations. Type exit and quit the terminal.

Note: The readline install sometimes produces a load of messages about not having permissions to write in /usr/local/ This didn't happen to me - I don't know why - but it happened to another buddy Jeff. His solution was to type su and his root password before typing make (you may need to enable the root account and set a root password in NetInfo Manager [inside /Applications/Utilities/] - you should probably disable the root account after finishing this install).

Further note: Jeff has since told me that the permissions issue was due to him having just installed OS X and never having logged out since installing. After logging out and back in he was able to install readline without resorting to su.

7. You also need to compile tintin. Launch Terminal again and type the following:

cd tt/src
./configure
make

You've just installed tintin++. Congratulations again. If you get an error while compiling tintin saying it cannot find readline in either of the two usual locations, there's something wrong with your readline install (most likely you had the permissions issue described above).

Using tintin++
You can navigate to the tintin directory and launch it by typing

cd ~/tt/src
./tt++

.

Once tintin has loaded, you can connect to a mud by typing:

#ses sot sotmud.net 23

where sot is the name of the session you are starting and sotmud.net (port) 23 is the address of the mud you are connecting to.

Note: To exit from tintin press ctrl-c

Getting started with login scripts
Create the file run by typing the following:

cd ~/tt/src
pico run
./tt++ run.scr

save the file (ctrl-X, Y, <enter> and make it executable by typing:

chmod 755 run

Create the file run.scr by typing the following:

pico run.scr
#read run.tin

save the file (ctrl-X, Y, <enter>
Create the file run.tin by typing the following:

pico run.tin

To auto-load a login alias called 'loginsot' every session, type the following:

#alias loginsot #ses sot sotmud.net 23

An alternative here is to bind the login command to the F1 key (#help macro for more information) by typing:

#macro {\e[11~}{#ses sot sotmud.net 23}

save the file (ctrl-X, Y, <enter>

What did that accomplish?
After all of the above typing ./run should start up tintin, and read in the contents of run.tin You can then type loginsot (or hit F1, depending what you did at the end of the previous step) to login to the mud address you defined.

While you have a session open you can now type: #config and set the configuration to your liking, and once done type: #write run.tin This will save your configuration in the run.tin file, so it'll be loaded whenever you use run.

Adding an alias for speedy launching
Launch Terminal and type:

pico .profile

This edits a hidden file (.profile) in our home folder. Use the down arrow to move down to the end of the file. Add the line:

alias tintin='cd tt/src;./run'

save the file (ctrl-X, Y, <enter>

You can now launch tintin (and your run.scr script) by opening a new terminal window and typing tintin.

Additional help
While in a tintin session typing #help will give you detailed help on making the most of tintin++. Also don't forget to look in the docs folder (inside the tt++ folder) at the example scripts. Finally the tintin messageboards has some useful discussion about older versions of tintin (most of it is still applicable).

Related entries

tintin++ 1.93.5 - 29 November 2004

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