[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Network bandwidth, and other things.

[Jason Dorje Short <vze49r5w@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Juan Uriarte wrote:
> Hello,
Hi!

> On Tue, 5 Nov 2002, Raimar Falke wrote:
> > I read your previous posts and thought "another one who implemented
> > zlib compression for the TCP stream and failed to provide numbers". So
>
>  Numbers are provided after each read(2) chunk (running with -d 2) and
> on the server console when a player disconnects. Typical compression
> is less than 50% of the original size (between 30-40 in my experience),
> around 20% for dead players.
The question isn't whether zlib compresses the data - this much is 
obvious.  The question is whether it makes FreeCiv faster.
As always, it is a tradeoff that will have different benefits depending 
on the situation.  On a fast computer with a slow connection it is a 
good thing, whereas with a slow computer on a fast connection it is bad. 
 The question is: *how* slow, and *how* fast?
If we make it an option, then we don't have to worry too much about the 
bad cases.  But there should still be numbers (or at least anecdotes) to 
show that the compression makes things better for *somebody*.  I'm not 
sure how you would get these numbers, but simply looking at packet size 
won't do it.
jason