Acronym for the American National Standards Institute. Founded in 1918, ANSI is a voluntery organization composed of over 1,300 members (including all the large computer companies) that creates standards for the computer industry. For example, the ANSI color and ANSI escape sequences that MUVEs use.

A sequence of special characters that sends a command to a device or program. Typically, an escape sequence begins with an escape character, but this is not universally true. MUVEs often use ANSI escape sequences to treat text with color and style information.

The client part of a client-server architecture. Typically, a client is an application that runs on a personal computer or workstation and relies on a server to perform some operation. For example, a MUVE client is an application that enables you to send and receive text to a MUVE server.

Savitar defines command markers to signal the beginning of a local command. A command marker is made up of 1 or 2 characters which are user definable. The default command marker is "##".

Short for Carriage Return / LineFeed, a carriage return is a special code that moves the cursor to the beginning of the current line. Linefeed moves the cursor to the next line. Some MUVE servers detect the end of a line of input using a CR, others use a CR and LF (CR/LF). Savitar supports both types.

Short for Hyper Text Markup Language, the authoring language used to create documents on the World Wide Web. HTML defines the structure and layout of a Web document by using a variety of tags and attributes. Savitar uses a subset of HTML as an optional means of displaying text.

Savitar's input pane is that part of the world's session window where the user enters text input.

A trigger that operates on things typed in the input pane.

Normally, commands entered in the input pane are sent directly on to the world server. However, if a command is entered perceeded by a command marker, it's treated as a local command, that is, it's not sent to the server but is interpreted and acted on by Savitar.

A name or key that represents a list of one or more commands. Savitar allows you to created macros so that you can enter a single key or word to perform a whole series of actions.

Short for Mud, Object Oriented, a specific implementation of a MUD system developed by Stephen White.

Short for Multi-User Dungeon (or Multi-User Dimension) a cyberspace where users can take on an identity in the form of an avatar and interact with one another. Originally, MUDs tended to be adventure games played within enormous old castles with hidden rooms, trap-doors, exotic beasts, and magical items. Nowadays, the term is used more generically to refer to any cyberspace.

Short for Multi-User Virtual Environment. An all-encompassing term that covers MOOs, MUDs, Mucks, Mushes, 3-D worlds, and chat worlds.

A popular Mac OS telnet application.

Savitar's output pane is that part of the world's session window where text arriving from the world's server is displayed.

A trigger that operates on things displayed in the output pane.

A computer or device on a network that manages network resources. In the case of Savitar's usage, the server is the computer running the MUVE world Savitar is connecting to.

The main window for a world. It's where all input and output are displayed.

A terminal emulation program for TCP/IP networks such as the Internet. A standard agreed-upon communication protocol between clients and servers for exchanging text information. Savitar supports a subset of this protocol.

Savitar supports the concept of "triggers", allowing you to set up interesting reactions that are triggered on one or more words that are received from the connected world (known as an output trigger), or one or more words you have typed in the world input pane (known as an input trigger).  You can even create triggers which operate on both input and output. Triggers can do all sorts of things like highlighting text, making a sound, or sending and automatic reply.

In Savitar, a variable is a synonym for macro.

Savitar defines variable markers to signal the beginning of a macro in a line of input. A variable marker is made up of 1 or 2 characters which are user definable. The default command marker is "%%". When Savitar encounters a variable marker in a line of input, it will substitute the %%<variable-name> with the variable's value.

A special symbol that stands for one or more characters. Savitar uses wildcards for matching triggers to incoming and/or outgoing text.

Savitar defines wildcard markers to signal the beginning of a wildcard. A wildcard marker is made up of 1 or 2 characters which are user definable. The default command marker is "$$". When Savitar encounters a wildcard marker in a line of input or output, it will set the $$<variable-name> with the text encountered.

A MUVE hosted on a remote server.

The setting information for a world saved out to the Mac OS as a file.

Short for eXtensible Markup Language, a specification developed by the W3C. XML is a pared-down version of SGML, designed especially for Web documents. It allows designers to create their own customized tags. Savitar uses XML to textually transfer its object data (trigger, macros, variables, and worlds.)