From: guddt@uniwa.uwa.edu.au (David Bennett)
Newsgroups: rec.games.mud.lp
Subject: Re: The horrors of native mode (Was: Re: Gamedriver survey [LONG])
Date: 14 Oct 92 20:37:27 GMT
Organization: The University of Westrn Australia
NNTP-Posting-Host: uniwa.uwa.edu.au

behrends@arctecws-12.dfki.uni-kl.de (Karl Reimer Behrends) writes:

>It doesn't. It doesn't at all. My main concern lies with key concepts of native
>mode, namely the design flaws in create()/reset(), move() and uids. Considering
>them to be a step backwards and showing that we don't need to switch to native
>mode to use its presumed benefits I just asked: Why have native mode at all if
>there are essentially only drawbacks associated with it?

Ummm..... Pardon?  Only draw backs?  What are the design flaws in
create/reset?  It seems a much more logical way of doing it that the
utterly stupid reset(arg) thingy from before.  Changeing move_object
so it can only move itself?  Is that a design flaw too?  I will have
to check up on that one.  Seems also like a better way of doing it, things
follow OO junk much more closely with the object being asked if it would
like to move.  In fact, we made exactly the same change to destruct in
our driver too.  Uids's I must admit are a little more dodgy...  It is
better than the old system, but...  I don't like them for some reason.
I have not added a trust command to my mudlib at all.  The security
thingys involved in export_uid were worrying...

>|> I think that
>|> all projects benefits from a total overhaul and redesign, especially if
>|> done by the original designers.
>|> 
>|> I firmly believe in the statement: 'No software is good software until
>|> 				    rewritten at least twice'.

>Surprisingly our opinions don't necessarily clash. I also think that a total
>overhaul can help cleaning up the code and removing unnecessary kludges due to
>design problems. But the specifications and the interface shouldn't be altered
>radically. Just consider what would happen if some manufacturer of UNIX made
>the argument of malloc() the number of ints instead of the number of chars to
>be allocated. He wouldn't be able to sell a single copy. Changing specifications
>radically just doesn't work in the real world - especially if you've got a user
>base to support.

Ummmmmmmm.

Personaly I think you are wrong here too.  I quite often utterly rewrite
some code somewhere cause I think of a much neater way of doing it.  In
quite a few of these cases it also requires modifing thingys elsewhere.S
Especialy where the code in fundamently flawed.  Your argument about malloc
doesn't hold water.  They HAVE changed some of the stupider library calls
in different versions of unix.  How many #ifdef's do you see in your
average program?  Unix is the same everywhere right?

Your real world comment.  cough cough.  Well.  If you are going to completely
rewrite your mudlib.  Why bother with sticking the same driver if you
don't like bits of it?  Sounds pretty pointless to me.

Share and enjoy,
Let the good times roll over and play dead.
David.
[DDT] Lost utterly lost.
-- 
  David Bennett,  guddt@uniwa.uwa.oz.au | University Computer Club
     Where Pink fish swim backwards.    | c/o Guild of Undergraduates
These words I am singing now mean nothing more than meow to an animal - TMBG
Disclaimer: Any spelling mistakes in this article are all entirly my fault.  Any grammer errors spotted in this article were put there because I could.
Newsgroups: rec.games.mud.lp