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Re: CF: animate_weapon() fixes



On Mon, Jun 12, 2000 at 03:13:08PM -0500, David Andrew Michael Noelle wrote:
> That's not the point.  This list is for developers as well as players,
> and it's just common courtesy to let the group know beforehand.
> Otherwise we'll be duplicating a lot of effort and creating new bugs
> with all the conflicts.  Communication is an absolutely essential part
> of collaboration.

I'm applying simple bug fixes direcly to the CVS tree because it's
unlikely that there are problems, and because I can always undo these
changes if there are problems.

> > All applying and unapplying of items must be handled by
> > apply_special().

> > Everything else is broken design, causing endless stream of bugs.

> leave it alone.  This project doesn't have an official coding style or
> design paradigm, so instances of different styles are not "broken",
> just different.

I can't think of any definition for "design" that would not call
scattering of some functionality across all server's code broken.
There have been bugs in this area (unapplying BOW and SKILL objects
didn't work correctly) that have been fixed by putting all code for
applying and unapplying objects into apply_special().

> The only bugs I've heard of being generated by this code are the
> server crash when it is cast by a monster or left on a map after the

Good design doesn't mean no bugs.  Good design means fewer bugs and
easier modifications.  I don't think anything was broken right now
because of the SET_FLAG (weapon, FLAG_APPLIED).  But if a monster's
weapon could be damaged some day if it attacks something (and
FLAG_READY_WEAPON is used to check if monster attacks with weapon) the
code would break.  Or if monsters also used skills like melee weapon
skill the code would break.

> If it was such a serious problem, you could have just set its book
> chance to zero, effectively removing it from the game until it was
> fixed.  I wasn't aware that a week represented a serious delay in an
> unscheduled, open-source collaboration with no deadlines.  If time is
> suddenly so critical, those of us who can only contribute a couple
> dozen hours per month will just have to quit.  Then the rest of you
> can choose an official coding style and rewrite everything.

The code had been released, players were complaining about this bug.

You're advocating a closed development model.  You're sitting on a
piece of code and don't let anybody else change it.  The only possible
reaction to a problem with that code is do deactivate it until you find
some time to fix it.  Other people can't use the code and can't
contribute to it in the meantime.  If you really want this, you can
still have your private version of animate_weapon() and replace the
"official" animate_weapon() some day.

-- 
Jan
-
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