[Freeciv-Dev] Re: agents, tiles, recycled IDs

[Raimar Falke <i-freeciv-lists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, Oct 20, 2003 at 10:25:53AM -0700, nikodimka wrote:
> 
> --- Raimar Falke <i-freeciv-lists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > On Thu, Aug 21, 2003 at 02:58:06PM -0700, nikodimka wrote:
> > > 
> > > Hello
> > > 
> > > During the development of puppetter interface
> > > I came to the following questions I'd be happy to find answers for:
> > > 
> > > 1) Easy one:
> > >    Is there a guaranty that unit/city IDs never recycled?
> > >    I mean can I assume that if for example a unit has been killed
> > >    its id will never be used again in the same game?
> > 
> > That is a good question. I don't know the answer because if a
> > unit/city is killed you get a notify and can remove your data about
> > the object.
> > 
> > > 2) Are there any plans on extending agents interface to react
> > >    on map tiles as it reacts on units and cities?
> > 
> > No. But if you need them, just add them. I would accept such a patch.
> 
> okay. this is what I do in puppeteer,
> Right now I'm trying to preserve NEW/CHANGE/REMOVE 
> semantcs, but it is not very adequate for representing:
> 
> unknown->known->fogOfWar -> known unchanged--> fogOfWar
>                          \> known changed   /
> 
> may be it requires me to think some more

NEW for a change from unknown to something
REMOVE for a change from something to unknown
CHANGE for anything else

> > > 3) It would be usefull when getting notification on unit change
> > >    to access the old state of the unit. 
> > >    So agents can easily determine which of unit fields have changed.
> > >    With no access to the old state the only possibility for agent to 
> > >    figure out changes is to keep track of all available units.
> > >    I have already asked the question at freeciv-ai@ but unfortunately got 
> > > no answer. :(
> > 
> > I also thought about this problem and my solution was an
> > agent. Surprise surprise. This means that there an agent which tracks
> > all changes and provides the other agents with a history. 
> 
> I haven't seen/recognized any API for agents to communicate.
> only callack API for agents to register in client and get notification.

For agents which interact please look at
http://lists.complete.org/freeciv-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx/2002/12/msg00252.html.gz

> > Think of it
> > as an historian. So this history agent (HA) can answer such questions
> > like "what was the previous state of this object?", "how did this unit
> > changed?", "what is known about the enemy city at tile (3,4)?", "what
> > is known about enemy units on this island?", "what unit types does
> > enemy player foobar controls?".
> 
> Looks like I not get the ideas behind the agents
> in the whole wideness. :(
> Is there any ideas description document I can
> read? Or may be you described the agnts ideas
> to the list so I could search for such a description?

Hmm there is doc/README.agents. But beside this I found no other
document which describe the whole picture. Just a lot of bits and
pieces.

        Raimar

-- 
 email: rf13@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
 "A common mistake that people make, when trying to design 
  something completely foolproof is to underestimate the 
  ingenuity of complete fools."
    -- Douglas Adams in Mostly Harmless