[Freeciv-Dev] Re: [RFC][Patch] Reduce bandwith by using deltas

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

I have no problem with using perl or python to generate code in the
autoconf step as long as the program takes well-formed input and delivers
well-formed output.

But that isn't what is happening here.

The python-written generator takes the old, kludgy network code which is
full of special cases as input and gives as output code that is at least
as bad. This also means that the generator itself contains these special
cases, and that changes to the network code will necessitate changes to
the generator. I don't like that at all.

I investigated the network code yesterday while loooking at how the
current network code could be autogenerated using cpp alone, and found to
my dismay that the packet definitions themselves were bloated beyond
sanity. Big packet structs are being reused when smaller structs would
suffice, meaning that _many_ packets send variables that are never filled
with data.

However, in order to clean this up (and to use cpp in place of perl and
python), we also need to impose a uniform structure on the network code. I
think this is a good thing, since it forces us to clean up some of the
uglier hacks and use a good API. But it also means some wider changes to
the other code, as we will need one C struct for each packet.

I think we should do such a cleanup even if we want to use a python or
perl generator to generate the network code, since only that way can we
avoid having to put all kinds of ugly special cases into the perl/python
generator itself (which to my mind will be a maintenance nightmare).

  - Per