Its not my query. He did ask about performance specifically. ROM is chock full of global variables. In essense I consider global variables a "Data base" and try and keep active things local to the proceedures.
Take damage.. passing ch though to raw_kill. I added an active_flags set on the char to identify what operation was happening. This cleaned up plenty of slight bugs. Chris ----- Original Message ----- From: "Chad Simmons" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Chris Winston Litchfield" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2003 3:29 AM Subject: Re: Question (of course) > > --- "Chris \"Winston\" Litchfield" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Macros using global memory? > > > > Pass pointers or use globals for performance. > > I'm not sure I understood you're initial query, but I'm concerned about the > above statement. > > This is not the first time you've suggested that good programming practice > (readability, and maintainability) be given a back seat to _highly_ miniscule > performance gains. There are reasons for using pointers, and there are reasons > for using globals. IMO "performance" is not a primary reason for doing either. > > Admittedly, in a number of places pointers can be employed to give significant > performance increases, but this is usually the result of using pointers to > create efficient data structures which provide performance gains. Using > pointers in and of themselves won't really do this. > > Globals should be used sparingly at best. They reduce the flexibility of your > programming design, and in many cases make sections of code highly dificult to > read. I'm reminded of some of that terrible terrible source I saw of Medevia > (sp?). Where to change the color text being sent to the character, a macro > would be called. This macro would in turn change a global variable to a > different color code. Then when the text was written to a character, it would > insert the code in this variable... The problem was that if one person had the > color output to them, and the programmer forgot to switch back, all the other > characters would also start getting their messages in that color. Variables in > the global scope should be restricted to only those things which have no > alternatives but to be accessed at the global level. IMO data about one > specific character attacking another does not fall into this paradigm. > > > ~Kender > > Rules of Optimization: > Rule 1: Don't do it. > Rule 2 (for experts only): Don't do it yet. > - M.A. Jackson > > "More computing sins are committed in the name of efficiency (without > necessarily achieving it) than for any other single reason - including blind > stupidity." > - W.A. Wulf > > "We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: > premature optimization is the root of all evil." > - Donald Knuth > > ===== > -----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK----- > Version 3.1 > GCS/L/C/O d-(+) s++: a-- C+++$>++++ UBLS++++$ > P+++(--)$ L+++>++++ E--- W+>++$ N !o K? w(--) !O > M- !V PS+ PE(++) Y+ PGP->+ t+ 5 X+() R(+) tv+@ > b++(+++) !DI+++ D G(-) e>+++$ h---() r+++ y+++ > ------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------ > > __________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software > http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com > > -- > ROM mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.rom.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/rom > >
