Re: [APROG] $local

• Date: Fri, 1 Dec 1995 17:42:11 PST
• From:
  Michael Brundage <anomaly@u.washington.edu>
• Cc: moo-cows@parc.xerox.com
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• In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.3.91.951201171120.15726A-100000@yeehaw.com> from "Bill Garrett" at Dec 1, 95 04:19:26 pm

> I'm actually looking at Mr. Smith's module proposal, and wondering if the 
> MOO world at large would be willing to accept the existence of 
> $local.local_objects.  This would be a standard object, updated 
> regularly, that maintained a listing of the `regular' generics and their 
> local object numbers.  This `registry' of sorts could also act as a way 
> of tracking the aforementioned database modules.
[...]
> To port something using Autoport Utilities, you'd provide a keyword 
> (prefixed with &) and the utilities object would do the lookup.  Example:

And what if I decide I want to not only keep track of the names and obj_nums,
but also the date the object was last modified (to make maintainence a smaller
headache)?  It's a fine idea to encourage some sort of systematization
of $local.objects, and obviously you can just write the autoport code to
use that, and then if people want to use autoport, they will need to
keep $local.objects current.

However, you shouldn't blur the separation between this information which you
wish to maintain, and the method you use to maintain it.  In particular, I
see absolutely no need to modify the server to recognize some new
&local_obj_name  {:= $list_utils:assoc($local.local_objects, name)[2]} syntax
when you can achieve the same thing in-db with something like
$local:local_object(name); which could then handle the lookup.

[For that matter, the same things could be said about the $prop {:= #0.prop}
syntax, but we seem to be stuck with it -- which is why length(properties(#0))
is about the age of the universe on some MOOs and one is prevented from
switching to a more efficient data representation for `named' objects.]

michael

anomaly@u.washington.edu

• Re: [APROG] $local
• From: Bill Garrett <bill@yeehaw.com>

• Re: [APROG] $local (was Re: Suggestion, re: Minimal.db)
• From: Bill Garrett <bill@yeehaw.com>

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