[Coldstuff] A couple questions, possibly related.

[Bruce Mitchener]

Jonathan Ross wrote:
 >   Invalid object numbers?  Well if root is 1 and sys is 2 then
 > why not use 0;  personally I've never seen any use of #0 but I
 > may not know the intricacies of Genesis that well.

Obviously. :)  0 is used as $sys.

 > So what value is there in having negative values?  Also, as
 > I've stated I don't know the intricacies all that well,
 > but what would happen if you removed the overflow checks from
 > the objnum generation function and just let it coast back on
 > up (after removing invalid object checking).

It is a fast and easy way to identify an object number as being valid or 
not.  I don't know the full reasons for the design decision as they 
weren't documented at the time (or I haven't seen/found that documentation).

 > Maybe the real purpose of using int instead of unsigned int is
 > the old saying by Bill Gates, "Who could ever need more than
 > 640k?"

Please.

First, read what I said below.  No one, in years of usage has come close 
to this limit, with constant usage.  I don't think even TEC is over 
#30000000 (that's 30 million).  tCD is under 2 million (although it has 
probably been reset many times by recompiles), and another Cold that I'm 
on is under 80,000.

Creating 1 object per second would take over 68 years to get to tee 
current limit.  This is ignoring all of the other logical reasons why 
this isn't a major concern at present.  (Like the memory usage required 
to run a system with that many objects likely not being workable in a 
32bit environment, or the amount of disk space needed, or if the 
shortage of object numbers was due to a high rate of decay, the fact 
that a recompile would recover many of the object numbers.)

Finally, doubling the amount of possible object numbers by moving to an 
unsigned value (only 4 billion or so), isn't a real fix and has not 
substantial benefit over the current situation.  A real fix, should this 
ever be a problem for someone, would be to shift the cObjnum typedef to 
being a 64 bit value and then fixing all of the bugs that that causes. 
I don't foresee needing to do this work for a long, long time, if ever.

  - Bruce

 >> Negative object IDs exist and are used for invalid object
 >> numbers.  Ease of programming possibly.  Also, if a MUD
 >> needs more than 2 billion objects over time (TEC isn't
 >> anywhere close), then it can be dealt with as that time
 >> approaches, or move to a 64 bit box and modify Cold to
 >> allow objnums to be 64 bit values.
 >>
 >> Other possibilities exist as well, but to date, no one has
 >> run into that limit after years of use.