SkyTable + ChatterBox

Solar2D General Questions/Discussion
#1

DISCLAIMER: This thread is about my experiments and thoughts w/ these two new plugins, and is not an official usage  (It may not even be supported.):

I love the minimalist nature of both of these plugins and I immediately thought,

“Gee I wonder if I can take these, combine them, then make something much more complicated than the whole?”

So, just for fun, I decided to combine the server installs for both of these plugins on the same server.  

Doing so, seemed to just work, but I have some questions that I’ll have to answer by testing and more carefully investigating the installation process.

What I Did

Being curious, and seeing a case where having both plugins’ server elements combined on a server would be useful, I…

FIRST Installed SkyBox on a DigitalOcean slice.

SECOND Installed ChatterBox on the same slice.

Next, I combined both client apps and ran them as a single app, where Chatterbox starts up, the Skytable runs its tests.

Both seem to work just fine.   :slight_smile:

Lingering Questions

  1. Is this a dumb thing to do? i.e. Will it work fine or will it eventually poop out with some weird error or issue?

>> Time and testing will tell.

  1. Does it matter than I’m running ChatterBox on and older version of Ubuntu?  For those of have read the docs, you’ll know that ChatterBox instructions say to use Ubuntu 17… while SkyTable docs say to use 16…

>> My guess is that both will run on 17…, but I haven’t confirmed this.

>> Currently I’m running both on 16… and having no issues.

  1. SSH… will it work? - This is probably a dumb question, but I am a total neophyte (or nearly so) when it comes to setting up secure servers.  

Upcoming Experiments

  • Poor Mans Semaphore  - If one tries to co-opt SkyTable as a way to easily share data between multiple users/authors, you quickly run into a lot of additional questions and issues.  One of the bigger issues is ‘locking’.
    • I have a solution for this that I’ve used before which I call a ‘poor mans Semaphore’.  While woefully slow, my technique (that relies on networking latency and some simple logic) worked quite well in other scenarios, so I have high hopes here.
  • ChatterBox + SkyTable + Secret Sauce == MUD ++
    • I started my multi-player game dev back in the days of MUDs when I helped administrate a MUD called ‘Enchanted Realms’.  
    • I still love the concept of MUDs and would love to see/make a mobile/desktop game utilizing elements of one today.
  • Word Games, Card Games, Matchmaking in General - These are more traditional experiments, and will come after the harder ones above.

-Ed

PS - Thanks to Chris for releasing these plugins!

PPS - If anyone wants to add notes about their own experiments w/ these plugins below please do so.  Just don’t add ‘help me questions’. For that, make your own forums post/thread.

#2

Hi,

First, thank you for diving in to both plugins, and sharing your usage and feedback.

As you’ve found, both plugins can work together, and indeed they compliment each other quite well.

In regards to Ubuntu 17, it’s not a really a requirement, but a recommendation, as there has been some work done in regards to cloud based networking in that version. it’s most likely a minimal difference except in the more extreme cases. So Ubuntu 16 is fine to use. In fact, that’s the only way ChatterBox can be used on Amazon.

While you can set up the SkyTable server in HTTPS mode manually, I should have covered that more intently, and will be releasing an “update” pack to simplify the process. I expect to have this ready in the next few days.

Creating a MUD would be a really cool. I too have had an interest in such an endeavor.  :ph34r:

I think it’s also important to note, that while you can push these plugins beyond there initial use case, they are purposely simple to cover their specific domain. That being said, a more robust data/app server (think Coronium lite) and realtime game server are in the works. Though I do not have any specific release windows yet. Each are much more complicated than SkyTable and ChatterBox.

-dev

#3

Hi,

First, thank you for diving in to both plugins, and sharing your usage and feedback.

As you’ve found, both plugins can work together, and indeed they compliment each other quite well.

In regards to Ubuntu 17, it’s not a really a requirement, but a recommendation, as there has been some work done in regards to cloud based networking in that version. it’s most likely a minimal difference except in the more extreme cases. So Ubuntu 16 is fine to use. In fact, that’s the only way ChatterBox can be used on Amazon.

While you can set up the SkyTable server in HTTPS mode manually, I should have covered that more intently, and will be releasing an “update” pack to simplify the process. I expect to have this ready in the next few days.

Creating a MUD would be a really cool. I too have had an interest in such an endeavor.  :ph34r:

I think it’s also important to note, that while you can push these plugins beyond there initial use case, they are purposely simple to cover their specific domain. That being said, a more robust data/app server (think Coronium lite) and realtime game server are in the works. Though I do not have any specific release windows yet. Each are much more complicated than SkyTable and ChatterBox.

-dev