[234] in Coldmud discussion meeting

strindex and word-wrapping

daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Fri May 13 00:44:02 1994 )

From: stewarta@netcom.com (Alex Stewart)
To: coldstuff@MIT.EDU
Date: Thu, 12 May 1994 21:40:59 -0700 (PDT)

> Hold on here..you want strindex (I like that best, but let's get on with
> the point) so you can do word wrapping?  Aren't we getting into the area of
> client functions?

Yes and no.  Yes, it _should_ be done in clients, but no this is not always the
case.  It is foolish to demand that everyone have specific equipment to use
your system when such demands are not strictly necessary, particularly when it
is often the case that users really cannot meet them.  The important concept
here is flexibility.  In any case, word-wrapping is not the only potential use
for a reverse-indexing function (particularly if it also applied to lists).

> I mean, if you start putting everything in the server, you get
> lambda, and you get 7 second lag and more server JUNK than you will ever
> use in your entire life.  See Lambda, if you don't believe me.

This is exactly the reason that important functions such as this should be
internalized in server builtins where they can be done efficiently, instead of
requiring them to take up huge server processing times just for basic string
mungeing.  I think you've got your point exactly backwards, really.

-Riche