[Gambas-user] gb3 RC1: using structures to replace the loss of Mk$ functions

[Kevin Fishburne]

On 04/01/2011 12:17 AM, Dag-Jarle Johansen wrote:
> Kevin, I have no idea. But in lack of business and money enough to live for,
> I would like to help you, if I am a good enough programmer. I have NOT made
> programs in your kind until now; my kind of networking was just to have the
> right client idle or not.
>
> IF you want me to, I would like to spend some time learning more Gambas, and
> in particular networking. As Info - I have spent 30 years or a little more
> learning and understanding IT, so you do not have to deal with a newbie. On
> the other hand - Gambas is expanding faster than you can look - I am not
> able to handle all the new features in G3 yet. But, often it is a matter of
> thinking different - I would, if not a need of speed (realtime), use a
> database as MySQL to gather data. It's the fastest thing I can think about -
> I have not experienced a difference between an array and a Query - although
> the array is in Memory(in fact the query is indeed in memory). It is a
> question - what is server, what workstation, where do work from?
>
> In this case Kevin, please answer per personal mail. thanks

I'd like to keep it in the mailing list for now, as I feel this should 
be heard by everyone.

I thought about using a database as a transaction and game state 
backend, which is what most MMOs do, but I have a particular need for 
brutal efficiency. I don't want to use some generic database because I 
can program it manually to be faster, custom-tailored to my exact needs. 
This game is designed to run as cheaply as possible (RAM, CPU, disk 
access, network, etc.), so databases are an easy/lazy fix that I am 
purposely avoiding. The app isn't multi-threaded so it can't be spread 
over a cluster or server farm on insane hardware. Sanctimonia is 
intended not just for my commercial benefit, but will be released open 
source so others may start their own games in their own game worlds.

I can think differently; I do that all the time. I just am a bit 
apprehensive about overhauling half of my code when the end result may 
be less efficient and more complex. My project's already complex enough! 
Also there are some grave issues regarding SQL if you've been following 
the nerd news as I have. The server side stores everything on disk, but 
some things are cached to arrays while others just stay on disk. So it's 
a hybrid based on how large the data sets are. With Linux's normal RAM 
caching of disk read/writes, it's pretty damn efficient.

I either need structures to be more flexible or the Mk$ functions to 
come back. I did some tests and you can't just have a generic structure 
assigned data from another structure. Not good for me. I think I'm 
straight up screwed, but will give it a few more days to see if I can 
come up with a suitable hack.

-- 
Kevin Fishburne
Eight Virtues
www: http://sales.eightvirtues.com
e-mail: sales at ...1887...
phone: (770) 853-6271