Re: #-1 owned a verb!

• Date: Fri, 22 Mar 1996 22:15:50 +0100 (MET)
• From:
  Thomas Wouters <zonny@dds.nl>
• Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
• In-Reply-To: <96Mar22.110220pdt.19556@silk.parc.xerox.com>

On Fri, 22 Mar 1996, Pavel Curtis wrote:

> It's clear that this is not intuitive, or even consistent (since nothing else
> can set an owner to #-1), but maybe the reasoning behind is worth saving in
> *some* form.  Ideas?  It could, for example, switch the currently owned by NEW
> things to be owned by the now-invalid OLD...

Hm, IMHO, the best thing to do is nothing... but document it properly :-) 
Leaving verbs owned by an invalid object (a recycled player) is an 
irritating thing, regardless whether it has been chowned to #-1 or not... 

In the MetroMOO we try to keep the DB tightly together, using the 
$recycler and filling up any holes we might have accidently created with 
recycle(). This way, if a player gets recycled for any reason, we only 
have to renumber a new player :-)

I realize this is a dangerous, potentially huge security hole, thats why 
I say it should be properly documented... I for one didn't know verbs of 
recycled players were kept around at all... I think it is better to let 
the DB or siteadmins (Errr, wizards) handle the verb-chowning (so they 
are forced to confront the problem) than to shove the problem away, 
potentially creating a big, unseen corner of the DB, with all ownerless 
objects, with ownerless verbs on them....

But, for those who like garbage-DBs, maybe it isn't the best solution ;-)

Regards,
  Thomas.

Thomas Wouters   |   Visit The Digitale City (DDS)   | Forever an Addict to 
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• Re: #-1 owned a verb!
• From: Pavel Curtis <pavel@parc.xerox.com>

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