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<H1>[MUD-Dev] Re: PDMud (was Re: Bruce Sterling on Virtual Community goals)</H1>
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<LI><em>To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI>
<LI><em>Subject</em>: [MUD-Dev] Re: PDMud (was Re: Bruce Sterling on Virtual Community goals)</LI>
<LI><em>From</em>: Jon Leonard &lt;<A HREF="mailto:jleonard#divcom,slimy.com">jleonard#divcom,slimy.com</A>&gt;</LI>
<LI><em>Date</em>: Fri, 23 Oct 1998 13:13:29 -0700</LI>
<LI><em>Cc</em>: Jon Leonard &lt;<A HREF="mailto:jleonard#divcom,slimy.com">jleonard#divcom,slimy.com</A>&gt;</LI>
<LI><em>Reply-To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI>
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<PRE>
On Fri, Oct 23, 1998 at 10:42:11AM -0400, Darrin Hyrup wrote:
&gt; At 09:18 PM 10/22/98 -0700, you wrote: 
&gt; &gt;On Thu, 22 Oct 1998 22:45:34 -0400
&gt; &gt;Darrin Hyrup&lt;shades#mythicgames,com&gt; wrote:
[snip]
&gt; &gt;&gt; The plug-in solution allows the mud programmer a choice in how they
&gt; &gt;&gt; wish to set their system up.  If they wish, they can code more in
&gt; &gt;&gt; the internal language, or they can use existing mud-code, or use
&gt; &gt;&gt; pre-compiled plugins (or create their own) for speed.  That way
&gt; &gt;&gt; neither flexibility nor efficiency are sacrificed, and the server
&gt; &gt;&gt; remains as simple and slim as possible.
&gt; &gt;
&gt; &gt;Such modular systems require what is essence is a message passing
&gt; &gt;system for the communication between modules.  It can be difficult
&gt; &gt;(witness the Mach micro-kernel) to ensure that the message passing
&gt; &gt;overhead does not become a significant fraction of the total
&gt; &gt;processing effort.  This will be especially difficult as the number of
&gt; &gt;boundary crossings (inter-module) for a modular plug0in-style server
&gt; &gt;will be difficult to keep low.
&gt; 
&gt; Oh, no doubt.  Seems like a great design challenge to me.

We have a few design advantages over Mach, primarily that we don't have to
context-switch for passing messages.  It'll usually involve using a function
pointer, which costs two memory references.  That's slow enough, but not
nearly as slow as saving most of the processor state.

For performance, I think we'll eventually want to make fairly heavy use of
backdoor APIs into other modules, including compiling modules together to
avoid using function pointers.

I think it's more important to start with a clean conceptual model, and
optimize when we have to.  There's a lot more features that we want to
code (all of them!) than there are complaints that it doesn't run fast
enough.

Jon Leonard


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<LI><STRONG><A NAME="00373" HREF="msg00373.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: PDMud (was Re: Bruce Sterling on Virtual Community goals)</A></STRONG>
<UL><LI><EM>From:</EM> Darrin Hyrup &lt;shades#mythicgames,com&gt;</LI></UL></LI>
<LI><STRONG><A NAME="00387" HREF="msg00387.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: PDMud (was Re: Bruce Sterling on Virtual Community goals)</A></STRONG>
<UL><LI><EM>From:</EM> J C Lawrence &lt;claw#kanga,nu&gt;</LI></UL></LI>
<LI><STRONG><A NAME="00397" HREF="msg00397.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: PDMud (was Re: Bruce Sterling on Virtual Community goals)</A></STRONG>
<UL><LI><EM>From:</EM> Darrin Hyrup &lt;shades#mythicgames,com&gt;</LI></UL></LI>
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<ul><li>Thread context:
<BLOCKQUOTE><UL>
<LI><STRONG>[MUD-Dev] Re: PDMud (was Re: Bruce Sterling on Virtual Community goals)</STRONG>, <EM>(continued)</EM>
<ul compact>
<ul compact>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00373" HREF="msg00373.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: PDMud (was Re: Bruce Sterling on Virtual Community goals)</A></strong>, 
Darrin Hyrup <a href="mailto:shades#mythicgames,com">shades#mythicgames,com</a>, Fri 23 Oct 1998, 02:32 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00387" HREF="msg00387.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: PDMud (was Re: Bruce Sterling on Virtual Community goals)</A></strong>, 
J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#kanga,nu">claw#kanga,nu</a>, Fri 23 Oct 1998, 04:18 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00394" HREF="msg00394.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: PDMud (was Re: Bruce Sterling on Virtual Community goals)</A></strong>, 
Petri Virkkula <a href="mailto:pvirkkul#iki,fi">pvirkkul#iki,fi</a>, Fri 23 Oct 1998, 12:37 GMT
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00397" HREF="msg00397.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: PDMud (was Re: Bruce Sterling on Virtual Community goals)</A></strong>, 
Darrin Hyrup <a href="mailto:shades#mythicgames,com">shades#mythicgames,com</a>, Fri 23 Oct 1998, 14:51 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00412" HREF="msg00412.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: PDMud (was Re: Bruce Sterling on Virtual Community goals)</A></strong>, 
Jon Leonard <a href="mailto:jleonard#divcom,slimy.com">jleonard#divcom,slimy.com</a>, Fri 23 Oct 1998, 20:18 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
</ul>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00375" HREF="msg00375.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: PDMud (was Re: Bruce Sterling on Virtual Community goals)</A></strong>, 
Chris Gray <a href="mailto:cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA">cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA</a>, Fri 23 Oct 1998, 02:52 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00380" HREF="msg00380.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: PDMud (was Re: Bruce Sterling on Virtual Community goals)</A></strong>, 
J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#kanga,nu">claw#kanga,nu</a>, Fri 23 Oct 1998, 03:41 GMT
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00388" HREF="msg00388.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: PDMud (was Re: Bruce Sterling on Virtual Community goals)</A></strong>, 
Niklas Elmqvist <a href="mailto:d97elm#dtek,chalmers.se">d97elm#dtek,chalmers.se</a>, Fri 23 Oct 1998, 07:35 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00392" HREF="msg00392.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: PDMud (was Re: Bruce Sterling on Virtual Community goals)</A></strong>, 
James Wilson <a href="mailto:jwilson#rochester,rr.com">jwilson#rochester,rr.com</a>, Fri 23 Oct 1998, 09:56 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
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</UL>
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