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[SERVER] Wish list--tick charging for built-ins

It would be nice if there were provisions for built-in functions to charge
a variable number of ticks to the executing task.  Why?  Well, it's nice
to implement some of the most computationally intensive functions as
server builtins because they're faster than byte-code interpreted code.
At the same time, it doesn't make sense that, for example, a call to
server_version() costs the same number of ticks as say, a call to a
built-in list_assoc() on a 100-element list that doesn't find a match.
Relying on tasks running out of seconds is bad; 3 seconds is an awful
large amount of the server's time for one task, really, and plus
preventing a task time-out is much harder than preventing a task tick-out
(from the programmer's point of view.)  It's true that it's more difficult
to know where all your ticks are going if a built-in function can use an
unknown number, but I think on balance this is a win for programmers.

Implementing this should be relatively simple -- just add
ticks_remaining() and charge_ticks() functions to the interface on
execute.h.  Only built-ins that want to charge ticks above the normal
number for a built-in need to use the functions.

Comments, anyone?


  --Chris                           cunkel@engin.umich.edu
    ResComp Network Support Technician, Bursley Hall
    "Invisibility is in the eye of the beholder."
    Home Page: http://www-personal.engin.umich.edu/~cunkel/
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