Hello, I think one of the best ways to optimise rom in regards to fread_string and such is to use something like the Shared String Manager that was written for mud++. The author converted it over to merc/envy and I know that Whiplash did a conversion to Rom. It's only my personal opinion but originally I found using SSM was better than the way Rom originally did it..
If you want to look even further, then see how the Merc team did Envy 2.2. It uses SMM and doesn't use fread_string or KEYS.. Not saying this is the best way either, it's just that there are many other ways to deal with things than the way Rom does. Lots of people have lots of ideas.. Rom is a creation of Russ therefore it includes his thoughts, ideas or whatever.. But it's common for others to want, know, or look to do things in other ways.. If that wasn't the case, We wouldn't have open source software nor would we have the source to rom. But this is exactly the reason why we do. Just my thoughts, Chris
