Originally Posted by CrazyDutchGuy
Please don't abuse objects that are not intended for heavy communication. I agree that we would like an option to have addons communicate with each other, but using guild notes is just not right imo.
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I am a Programmer of many languages (Lua is my 7th). For me there are only concepts. Each language and environment is more or less suiteable for certain concepts.
And I am just trying to figure out the limits for this concept (interclient communication) in this environment (ESO). And maybe push them a bit.
Originally Posted by CrazyDutchGuy
Addon communication between players should just be build in in a way like the chat system works, but then with hidden channels.
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Having Channels that the normal user cannot see (and only addons care for) would be ideal*. As the user would not normally see what is comming over there (unless he has an addon that listens to it and informs him), it's useability for spam would be limited based on the number of people who have listening addons (and if you can even send random Strings over it; most of the times I would just send numbers).
The thing is that those messages could easily get out of hand. We only see what is happening in our Local Zone chat (plus maybe say and yell), our group and our guilds. But the load for the IRC Server behind this must be enourmous. Allowing addons to communicate that way might be not feasible within the resource constraints of a MMO. Maybe they reintroduce something like this when they do not need so many resources for bug fixing. We should ask them again 6 Months after launch.
*That is perhaps the same reason Addons still can write member notes - you actually need a addon that
registers the Change Event and
notifies you of every change before it
could even be used for Spamming you. And if you have to install an addon to even have a problem then it is your own fault for installing it.
Actuall Planning work:
Naturally we have to avoid Strings in the G-Note as much as possible. They just need way too much space for thier data.
If we can identify things via a number it would be very easy. We can send arbitrary data over a String based medium using
Base64 encoding. It's how every E-Mail attachement and binary data in XML works.