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Re: Database editors

On Tue, 12 Sep 1995, ThwartedEfforts wrote:

> >May I add changing a player's password, 
> 
> yuck.

Why is this a bad thing?  If I got $0.10 for every time I heard about 
another lone wizard on another MOO who forgot his or her password and 
need to put in a new one, I'd be a rich man.  Okay, maybe not rich... but 
I'd have enough to buy a Whopper or something.

> >setting a player flag (for those 
> >really stupid ones who @toad #2 without backing up first), etc.  One time I 
> >accidently @recycled #0 on my personal play pen MOO. (Believe me it was an 
> >accident... I made a typo in an eval or something.  Honest.)  
> 
> Anyone who does this more than once (and if you do do it, then you should be
>  restoring from a backup, not trying to edit the db) probally isn't learning 
>  that these things are "bad".  If you are working on something big or if
>  you are accident prone, you should be making backups often.

I just added that in because yes, I did hear one or two instances where 
#2's player flag was removed.  Sure, it's a stupid thing.  Just that it 
has happened, so an editor, maybe, ought to handle it.  That's the only 
use really for a database editor: doing things that can't be done with 
LambdaMOO or fixing a broken database that can't be loaded or brought 
under control.

> >So, might I also add porting an object between databases?
> 
> While I will admit that @dump is not the best, it does work, and is, at this
>  time, the best thing we have for porting objects.

Okay, so maybe this isn't the best idea for a database editor.  I just 
came up with it and tossed it in to see what people thought.  I agree, it 
would be better if someone created a porting object to handle porting 
between MOOs... maybe one logs into the second via $network and sends the 
object?

> As far as everyone knows (no known reported cases) the LambdaMOO server doesn't
>  corrupt databases during normal operation (I've never even seen a db become
>  corrupt during abnormal operation), so there is no reason you shouldn't be
>  using the server to change the contents of a database, and even for operator
>  error, a backup of the db is a much better option than hand editing it.

True.  but it does, occationally, become corrupt for whatever reason.  
And, every single time, it was on a MOO that backs up only once every day 
because of limited RAM or a slow CPU, or maybe even less often, and it 
always occours right after the tired wizard has just finished an 
extremely huge and groundbreaking day long project.  I think that having 
a (very simple) database editor would be an advantage, just to handle 
common causes of corruption.  Maybe search through the database and look 
for corrupt things and report where they're at so if you're a decent db 
editor, you can fix it?

Phantom
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