[Freeciv-Dev] (PR#11805) Store chat and notify messages for later retrieval

["Ed Overton" <edoverton@xxxxxxxxxx>]

<URL: http://bugs.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=11805 >

> [jdorje - Thu Jan 06 20:09:40 2005]:
> 
> Ed Overton wrote:
> 
> >>There is no need for the client to request these events I 
> >>think - it certainly shouldn't come via a chatline request
> >>but should be a separate packet if it is done.
> > 
> > I don't see that there is a need necessarily, but it would be nice
> > (again, focusing on disconnected play).  Allowing server commands such
> > as /messages all is the disconnected play equivalent to scrolling up in
> > the message log during connected play.  There are times when it's useful
> > to look back in the message log, and that's what I'm trying to support
> > with the /messages chatline requests.
> 
> It would be better for the client to know all the messages, and allow 
> scrollback (via arrow buttons perhaps) in the messages dialog.  Still no 
> need for the user to enter some weird command - all they have to do is 
> click a button to look at the data that the client already knows.

I see what you mean now.  That makes sense.  I'll have to check the code
and think about it a bit more this weekend when I have time - tackling
it this way may mean a larger scope than I'd envisioned.  That's fine; 
I just want to be sure I know ahead of time what it is I'm doing.

> However having the server remember messages from previous turns is a 
> problem.  We don't have journalled savegames ...

> Having journalled savegames would be very nice but may not be 
> feasible either.

For the short term, I would think the solution could simply be to have
the save game save only those messages from the current turn.  A running
server might have a larger array (dynamic list) that would have a longer
span, but that's not necessary in the save game.  If/when journalled
savegames arrive, it would be natural to expand the message save at that
point.

Changing topics somewhat...

From the disconnected player viewpoint, one big problem is the ability
to communicate.  The fundamental piece is chat - if chat messages that
arrived during one's disconnect could be retrieved at the time of client
connection, then users could simply use chat to leave messages for one
another.  That would let them arrange a time where they'd both be online
(and therefore they could meet via the players window).  I had been
seeing chat messages as a related but separate item here - I was
thinking along the lines of both chat message storage and notify message
storage.  Unless I'm misunderstanding something, we've only been
discussing the notify side of things.  Are there any issues I should
know about for the chat side?

Thanks,
Ed