[DGD] Net package

[Erwin Harte]

On Sun, Apr 06, 2003 at 12:55:39PM +1000, Daniel.Sloan at vu.edu.au wrote:
> I'm working my way through the DGD driver source, and I am
> considering either writing a new Net package, or updating
> the old one for the 1.2 experimental branch.

Yay!

> I have some questions about approach and implementation...
> 
> 1. Should I leave the existing network code intact and tack the
>    net package code on as additional networking support (open new
>    ports, connect to external addresses, etc)?  Or should I disable
>    all existing network code and emulate everything in the kernel lib?
>    There are advantages to both approaches I think - what do others think?

I'd think it would be nice if the difference between using vanilla DGD
or DGD with extra networking code is only a matter of some #ifdef's,

Whether that answers your question, I'm not sure.

> 2. Should I take the approach of trying to use the existing kfuns and
>    kfun names for the new code (if it replaces the existing network code),
>    or should I write new kfuns?  I lean towards new kfuns, since it
>    makes the functionality distinction clearer.

If you're reimplementing things like send_message(), block_input(),
why -not- keep the same name, just with a slightly different backend?
It makes sense to me.

> 3. Should I implement telnet connections or just raw TCP or UDP? It
>    seems redundant to implement telnet in the driver when a little
>    LPC in the kernel mudlib would produce the same effect I believe?

If you stick to raw TCP and UDP and provide an LPC emulation of what
Dworkin has written in C in the vanilla DGD, that would probably make
your life and that of others a lot easier and happier as it allows you
to not worry about the difference on the C side and others can extend
the LPC code if they so wish.

[...]
> 5. Is this pointless?  Is someone else already doing this and I just
>    haven't heard about it?

I haven't heard about it either.  Would love to have an uptodate
network package that allows for smtp, dns, ftp, dict and various
other protocols written in LPC to be useful again. :-)

Erwin.
-- 
Erwin Harte <harte at xs4all.nl>
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