Re: Changing World Files

From: Erwin S. Andreasen (erwin@PIP.DKNET.DK)
Date: 12/02/97


On Tue, 2 Dec 1997, George wrote:

> On Tue, 2 Dec 1997, Erwin S. Andreasen wrote:
>
> >A better way is to use versioning, which also retains backwards
> >compatibility with older area files (for reading).
>
> Even better than versioning is to just tack values onto the end of the
> line.  Then have the server check how many arguments it actually read
> (sscanf). If it didn't get all of them, just fill in a default.

No, possibly in THIS case where the original poster wanted to add one
number, but definitely not generally.

You can't add non-integer values doing that, like strings, words.  You
can't remove values, say you have a format that looks like:

useless-integer useless-integer 4 useless-integer

which you want to be

4

MERC area files are like that; lots of useless stuff from Diku

Plus, versioning can be used not only to change area file format, but to
modify all existing mobs - say you want to change from a 1-40 to 1-100
level MUD and want to adjust all mobs but only once (nothing I would ever
really recommend doing, but I couldn't find a better example).


 =============================================================================
Erwin Andreasen   Herlev, Denmark <erwin@pip.dknet.dk>  UNIX System Programmer
<URL:http://www.abandoned.org/drylock/>     <*>         (not speaking for) DDE
 =============================================================================


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