[MUD-Dev] Re: Question regarding Java threads

[Chris Gray]

[John J. Adelsberger III as quoted by Jon A. Lambert:

 >By the way, your P2-233 will choke with 200 active users.  Interrupt
 >overflow from the NIC.  You could solve this problem with a $500 NIC
 >that doesn't interrupt the CPU as much(has its own processor,) but
 >then you'll have to ban char mode telnet outright and do some other
 >unfriendly things too, and I just don't know that you're going to find
 >200 simultaneous players anyway; few muds do, so unless you become one
 >of them, it isn't worth the time, money, and effort to prepare for:)

Character-mode telnet connections are indeed evil. They consume far
more resources than a line-mode telnet connection. Unfortunately,
many telnet clients (don't know about MUD clients) just don't do
line mode very well.

What I plan to do for this is to sortof have a layer in front of
the server that does telnet stuff. I'll provide the user with a
bunch of escaped commands that allow them to find out just what is
the best combination of settings for their telnet/MUD client. All
of this will not involve the MUD system itself, other than being
implemented in the server's telnet code. I want to be able to
enable debug, so that the user can see just what my end is seeing
and doing, so that they can hopefully get a line mode that works
properly for them. Dunno if users will bother, if the default, which
pretty much has to be character mode, works. I guess it'll come down
to how busy the server is and how busy the connections are. If any
are busy, they will get much better response if they are able to put
their client into line mode.

Of course the full solution is for everyone to use my not-yet-written
Java client, which connects in a binary mode which doesn't even have
the concept of a character mode. :-/

--
Chris Gray     cg at ami-cg.GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA