[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Notes and serial numbers

["Per I. Mathisen" <Per.Inge.Mathisen@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, 2 Sep 2001, Raimar Falke wrote:
> Problem: the server currently doesn't respond to each packet it gets
> from the client. There is no packet sent back for example if a unit
> tried to do some stupid (into the ocean and no ship) move. Any client
> side automated code however has to know if the request succeeded or
> not. One way is to add an "error" packet to every error path. Another
> way is to sent a generic "execution finished" packet after every set
> (can be empty) of packet which were sent during the normal execution
> of the command. This would allow the client to wait for this
> "execution finished" packet and than check the new position of the
> unit and sees if it had been changed or not. To have more than one
> packet on the fly between client and server serial numbers are needed
> to match "execution finished" packets with the corresponding
> commands.

Good suggestion, but since human opponents do not need this, can it be
optional? Client AIs tell the server that it needs serials, and the server
adds serials to all packets going to that player. It adds more overhead,
but gives smaller bandwidth consumption.

Perhaps that part of the code could even be put into a macro, and that
macro be disable-able through configure, for those who want speed rather
than bandwidth conservation?

Just some thoughts off the top of my head.

Yours,
Per

"One computer crash is a tragedy. A million computer crashes is a Microsoft
product." -- unknown