[Opensim-dev] proposal: cleanup and break up region modules

[Sean Dague]

Justin Clark-Casey wrote:
> Dr Scofield wrote:
>> Justin Clark-Casey wrote:
>>> Dr Scofield wrote:
>>>> i've been looking at where region modules live in our source tree --- 
>>>> OpenSim/Region/Modules and OpenSim/Region/Environment/Modules --- and 
>>>> how they get bundled:
>>>>
>>>>     * modules in OpenSim/Region/Modules get their own private DLL
>>>>     * OpenSim/Region/Environment/Modules get lumped into ONE gigantic DLL
>>>>
>>>> off the 3 modules living in OpenSim/Region/Modules 2 might be good 
>>>> candidate for forge project: python and SvnSerializer. the third really 
>>>> belongs to the Terrain region module and seems to contain the default 
>>>> terrain effects.
>>>>
>>>> i think it would make sense to
>>>>
>>>>     * have all region modules living in the same neighborhood (i'd
>>>>       prefer OpenSim/Region/Modules), the current layout is a bit confusing
>>> Don't we need to make a distinction between 'service' modules (such as the REST module) and scene/environment modules 
>>> though?  The former are not attached to a scene (and may well never be concerned with scene code) while the latter are 
>>> very much scene related.
>> that would be another step. first i'd like to get the modules settled in the
>> same neighborhood.
>>
>>>>     * break up the region module super-DLL so that each region module
>>>>       gets a DLL of its own
>>> At least on mono, I'm guessing that this would vastly expand build times.  Certainly at the moment, each invocation of 
>>> mono to build a new assembly appears to take far longer than building many files in a single dll.
>> vastly?
> 
> Maybe this is a slight exaggeration but I'm anticipating that the build time would be much longer.  I'm happy to be 
> proved wrong on this point.  Maybe this seems a minor thing but long build times are such a pain in the ass.

It may add a bit of time, but I don't think it would be much.  If going
after build times is a goal, I think that's probably a seperate topic.
Nant (like ant) does a lot of dumb things that waste time.

>>> I also tend to think of the current modules in OpenSim/Region/Environment/Modules as fairly core modules that one would 
>>> expect to be packaged together, and which it would be inconvenient to split up.
>> hmm...that kind of goes against the idea of them being modules, i'd think :-)
>>
>>
> 
> Does it?  Isn't this just a convenient way of packaging the core modules that almost everybody is going to need to run 
> their OpenSim (though I would admit that some of the modules in there arguably aren't core...)
> 
> I feel that what would be really useful is a core mechanism for enabling/disabling modules which doesn't rely on the 
> module itself having that option.  This would be simpler and might make the question of whether there are lots of 
> modules bundled in a single dll moot (since you can just enable/disable them with separate config entries - and storage 
> space for dlls is cheap :-)

I'd be much more of a fan of having each module a seperate dll.  Files
are cheap too. :)  And that makes it very clear to people what they are
loading, and what they aren't loading.

> Which in itself leads me on to the question of splitting up the massive monolithic config file.  I don't know about 
> other people, but I find it a pain to deal with.  I feel that these kinds of changes would be really valuable whilst 
> rearranging the module spaces is kind of nice to have but doesn't seem the most pressing issue right now.  But that's 
> just my opinion :-)

I'd be a fan of that as well.  More importantly, I think we need to get
down to 1 config system and 1 plugin system for the project.  Right now
I think we're still at 2 or 3 per, which makes it painful all around.

	-Sean

-- 
Sean Dague / Neas Bade
sdague at gmail.com
http://dague.net


-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 252 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
URL: <http://opensimulator.org/pipermail/opensim-dev/attachments/20090128/a7c3e68d/attachment-0001.pgp>