[ctoth]

Extends dialect coverage using a 321-file corpus of MUD areas (mud-areas/ + rom/). A corpus sweep (detect, then parse with the detected reader, falling back to ROM/Merc/SMAUG) went from 221 ok / 100 fail with 44 fallback rescues to 295 ok / 26 fail with 0 fallback rescues. Every file now parses with the reader detect_area_type picks.

New dialects

Dialect	Reader	Detection	Corpus files
ACK!MUD	AckAreaFile	#AREA name string followed by a K keyword~ line	25
Devil's Silence	DsaAreaFile	first #AREA string is DSA Format~	12

• ACK!MUD: letter-keyed header (K/L/N/I/V/X/F/U/O/R/W plus text flag lines T/P/B/M/S), rooms with two numbers (sector may be missing) and raw exit bits, mobiles with a ! line and inline >trigger ... ~ | MOBprograms, four-value objects with A/E/L records, #OBJFUNS.
• DSA: ROM bodies ending in keyed lines up to End on the header, mobiles, objects, rooms and exits. These lines are kept verbatim, since their meaning is DSA-specific. The area help is bare text ended by -1 $~. Resets are Reset ... lines inside each room, and they are read as typed DsaReset records on the room.

Both come with native writers (dumps()/write()), and every one of the 37 corpus files round-trips to an equal model.

ROM variants read by RomAreaFile

• ROM 2.3 with a Merc-style header (#AREA {5 15} Author Name~). These were detected as Merc because the header has one string. They are now routed to ROM when the first mobile has a race string. RomArea.header_format records "merc". RomMob.group is None where the file has ROM 2.3's literal S. M/P resets read a fourth argument only when one is present on the line.
• ROM OLC / ROT #AREADATA (Name/Filename/Builders/VNUMs/Credits/Security/Zone). These were detected as GodWars, which rejected Credits. They are now routed to ROM when a Credits line or a race string on the first mobile is present. ROM reads and writes this header (header_format == "areadata", plus builders, security and zone). ROT mobiles carry shielded_by between affected_by and alignment.
• The ROM writer now emits #MOBPROGS. Before this, it dropped them on write.

Leniency

• Dice accepts a flat number (mana 100) and a +- negative bonus (1d5+-1).
• Room sector numbers outside SECTOR_TYPES are kept as raw ints instead of raising.
• An unknown ROM object condition letter reads as 100, which matches ROM's loader. A numeric condition is consumed whole.

Remaining corpus failures (26)

• 4 are not area files (rom/group.are, help.are, rom.are, social.are). They fail cleanly with "no rooms". keep.are also has no rooms.
• Records that look hand-damaged:
  • court (dice with no bonus)
  • aliens2 and grail (dice written where the wealth number belongs)
  • olympus2, templofm, templofs, elvandar
  • gnome, gragh and grave (unterminated strings)
  • ephradle (broken header)
  • rom/proto.are (a template with XX00 vnums)
• Rarer layouts not handled here:
  • Merc mobiles with E .trigger~ records (alice, deathdun)
  • container values written as '' (mirror2, ocean, zoo)
  • Merc-style > MOBprograms inside ROM mobiles (swroad)
  • lhouse, AsylumGrounds, pagesvisited, dethkeep

Tests

Small trimmed fixtures are under test/ack, test/dsa, test/rom23 and test/rot, with tests in test_ack.py, test_dsa.py, test_rom23.py, test_rom_areadata.py and test_lenient_values.py. The full suite gives 1064 passed and 1 failed. The failure is test_medievia.py::test_loads_standalone_medievia_world_file, which already fails on master because cli.load_area is missing; the concurrent CLI PR fixes it.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

https://claude.ai/code/session_01LsTyuYeZHogKAnGhufs9gN