K 10
svn:author
V 6
rfalke
K 8
svn:date
V 27
2003-11-28T17:37:45.000000Z
K 7
svn:log
V 1067
Introduction of a new network protocol (code name "delta"). There are
4 major parts:

 - formal definition of the protocol in common/packets.def. The C
 source code is generated by the python generator
 common/generate_packets.py. This also includes a cleanup of the
 existing packets and their fields.

 - the generated C source code will only send the field of a packet if
 its values changed. This reduces the bandwidth usage.

 - the network stream is compressed with zlib. The level can be
 controlled with the environment variable
 FREECIV_COMPRESSION_LEVEL. This reduces the bandwidth usage.

 - direct calling: there are dsend_packet_* function for each
 send_packet_* function which instead of taking "struct packet_* *"
 these functions take the values of this packet directly. This
 eliminates the need for declaring and using the packet structs used
 in the past. A similar direct approch is used for the handle
 functions in the server.

For more information see doc/README.delta.

Patch is from Raimar Falke. A lot of testing done by Arnstein
Lindgard.

END