Re: [Rails-devel] Starting on a client/server

[Erik V. <eri...@hc...>]

> Just a quick update...
> 
> I'm still working on getting the client/server parts working.
> 
> Currently, I've gotten the startup code refactored, and am just
> starting to tie it into the network bits.  Unfortunately, the fall
> tends to be a busy time for me, so I haven't had as much time work on
> this as I'd have liked.
> 
> I'm not quite ready to push this back into cvs yet. I'd like to get a
> bit further into having a minimally functional client/server. Being
> that this is an open source project, perhaps I shouldn't "go dark" for
> too much longer. I've been using github.com to push my changes between
> home and work, so that I can work in both places whenever I have a
> free moment. (Note: this doesn't mean we're changing revision control
> systems. This is just my personal place to store code. When I feel
> it's ready, I'll push this code back into cvs.)

Perhaps you should create a new branch in CVS for it?

> So, you're welcome to check the current state of things here:
> http://github.com/wakko666/18xx/tree/master

I have downloaded it and tried to run client and server, but
1. The compiler reports an error in the client:
The method actionPerformed(ActionEvent) of type NetworkClientWindow must
override a superclass method	net/sourceforge/rails/client/ui
NetworkClientWindow.java	line 77	1225706052046	65163
2. I can't find a Server main method.

> There's some fairly major reorganization that I've done, and I've
> totally refactored the XML parsing. 

Can you elaborate a bit on how you see XML parsing be done your way,
and what the perceived benefits are? What exactly was wrong with it?

It strikes me that the XMLParser API has the dreaded Document, Element and
NodeList
types that I have so carefully hidden inside Tag last year...
Will XMLParser replace Tag, or will the former just be used by the latter?
In any case, GameInfoParser isn't using Tag.

Will your reorganisation extend to replacing/rewriting the configureFromXML
methods of so many classes? Please be careful to retain the
dynamic extensibility of the XML that we have gained by having
(possibly game-specific) classes parse their own dedicated XML.

> Both of these I'd like to see
> comments on before I push this into our code repository. Things are
> still in heavy flux, so none of this is set, and I really don't want
> to shake things up too much without make sure you guys are also happy
> with it.  My hope is that some of these changes will help make
> reorganizing the game engine code a little easier.

Before I can judge all this I would like to know what your thoughts are 
on the direction in which the game engine need be "reorganized".
What are your sore points? 
Of course there is much work to do in the existing code to make the
client/server 
split possible at all, but so far I cannot see much of that in what you have
published,
and you seem to stir up quite a bit more than just that.

In general it is not very clear to me what direction you are taking,
and why, on matters that are not immediately related to the client/server 
split (such as XML parsing).

Erik.