[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Agents and network (Was (for reasons unnown): Path findig)

[Gregory Berkolaiko <Gregory.Berkolaiko@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 26 Nov 2002, Per I. Mathisen wrote:

> On Tue, 26 Nov 2002, Gregory Berkolaiko wrote:
> > Possible solutions are:
> > 1. Make client fully rules-aware (duplicate rules engine in client)
> > 2. Move theagents to the server.
> >
> > Option 1 is boring.
> >
> > Option 2 will impose some limitations on the client and is certainly a
> > very brave thing to do.But it will be very interesting to code and will
> > also stop many compatibility problems.
> 
> Yes! Finally someone agrees with me.
> 
> Agent backends should go into the server. CM preferences should be sent to
> the server and applied there - end of many CM problems. Path and path
> parameters should be sent to server and executed there.

And we can actually go a bit further.  At the connection time server tells 
the client what agents are available and what are the parameter fields and 
options for each agent.  The client uses this information to create the 
agent dialogue, collects the parameters, sends them to the server.  Server 
applies the parameters, the results are sent to the client using normal 
update packets.  So there are no actual agents in the client, but there is 
universal client support -- no compatibility issues!

It sounds a bit like SciFi, but I am sure it's implementable.

G.