Re: Is there anybody there?

["Eric A. Anderson" <eanders+@CMU.EDU>]

Jonathan Roy <ninja@halcyon.com> writes:
> The server would simply say "display bitmap xxx at x,y" or something
> like that... (I assume the server would simple send a map to the
> client, and the client would have the bitmaps all stored locally.
> Maybe.. :) )
> 
> That alone would help alot. X is a bear. 
This in particular wouldn't help at all because that command is
precisely what the X calls do, if not more efficiently because with
fonts, it can say "Here's the entire line".
Now it would help if you let the client handle the changing bitmaps,
and let the client cache most of the map (on a as provided by server
basis.) 
--
UDP .vs. TCP
I would vote for TCP, in general, unless you really understand network
protocols, you'll get UDP stuff wrong, which means that you can easily
swamp the network.  Moreover, the overhead for TCP isn't particularily
high, and the amount of savings in coding time is substantial.
--
The problem with clients being smarter is a classic one,  the netrek
solution is to have binaries distributed which have a "key" to connect
them to servers so that the client and servers can mutually
authenticate.  There's not a lot you can do about this problem other
than that solution.
--
Disk space and groups:  I can provide space until late May(when I
graduate), and I can add accounts.  If someone else can offer a better
deal, i.e. machine existing for longer, than I'd go with them.
           -Eric 
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