[MUD-Dev] World Persistence, flat files v/s DB v/s ??

[Greg Munt]

On Sun, 22 Mar 1998, Chris Gray wrote:

> [Ben Greear:]
> 
> :The two things I'm pondering now are binary flat files (one per object,
> :a collection of objects?? I dunno) or a database.
> 
> A binary form has the distinct advantage that it is relatively easy to
> replace a single entity in the file. With text files, variations in
> formatting of things like numbers make that harder. If you need to save
> more than one kind of thing in your file (fairly likely!), then you can:
> 
>     - have multiple files, one per type of entity
> 	[can be expensive in terms of file handles and space]
>     - reserve portions of the file for arrays of the different entities
> 	[what happens if you overflow a portion, needing more space?]
>     - set up means by which varying lengths and types of things can be
> 	interspersed in the file, and properly found and updated.
> 	[can get complicated]
> 
> The third choice is pretty close to writing your own DB system.

Any hints and tips on this third choice? References? Web sites? (Good) Books?

--
Greg Munt, greg at uni-corn.demon.co.uk; http://www.uni-corn.demon.co.uk/ubiquity/
"Deliver yesterday, code today, think tomorrow."