[MUD-Dev] Let's talk about numbers.

[Jon A. Lambert]

On 23 Sep 98, Caliban Tiresias Darklock wrote:
> On 01:23 AM 9/24/98 +00-05, I personally witnessed Jon A. Lambert
> jumping up to say:
> >
> >It begs the question, "Is the fixed dimensional array evil?"
> 
> Only when the dimension of the array is an integral part of the
> object's type, as in Pascal -- where an array of three integers
> cannot be assigned to an array of five integers, because an array of
> three is not an array of five and therefore the types don't match so
> the assignment is impossible.

Your database description is somewhat akin to the internals of
various dbm implementations I've looked at.  It does however 
illustrate some the issues with older and even current databases.   
Hard-wired limitations that the designer thought were quite 
reasonable or unattainable at the time.  And concessions to the OS, 
processor or storage media.

I'd seal this code tightly in a blackbox API.  Make it compatible 
with __int64  as well as __int32.  And make everything that can be 
conceivably configurable external to the engine via an .ini or config 
file or a registry entry (whatever your flavor is).  

With any luck after debugging and tuning, you won't have to revisit 
the code for...umm... a couple years from now when you find a 128-bit 
machine on your desktop running Sherbert-OS '03.   ;)   

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