From: Jeff Moore <jcmoore@...>
Date: 2008-10-06T09:27:23+09:00
Subject: Re: Object Persistence for a MUD

Brent Dillingham wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> For fun, I'm writing a MUD with Ruby.

I've been doing something similar with a multi-user space game. I 
haven't arrived at any firm conclusions but the first thing that I have 
observed is the split between static/stateless data and dynamic/stateful 
data.

There is a tremendous amount of static data (maps, buildings, locational 
characteristics, etc) so it seems to make some sense to separate this 
from the dynamic data/stateful (current health, ammo, factional 
affiliations and status, etc).

At this point, I'm generating the static part of the universe and 
Marshaling it to file so it can be re-used. Some would argue with 
Marshal as a choice but I'm using DRb between clients and servers and 
Marshal is the default object protocol within DRb so in for a penny, in 
for a pound as they say...

On the plus side, it's considerably faster than YAML or a database.

On the minus side but isn't readable or mindful changes in object 
version. If you've modified the object definition between store and 
load, you need to rebuild. This is the reason I've relegated it to 
managing static data only.

The dynamic/stateful part looks like it's going to require a database of 
some sort largely to provide a relatively stable/secure repository.

SQLite looks like my first choice at this point as it's supposed to be 
fast, small and zero maintenance. We'll see...

Best of luck

djief

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.