New Game Numbering System [Pending]

[gloryordeath]

copy and paste works on all numbers even a mil....

[cicero]

Guys
The quote below is from this thread on 1 October 2007

I have concluded that the underlying key should remain a plain old number. For one thing, that makes it easy for the database to auto-increment. Any change to underlying key would require too much re-coding of many parts of the website and may affect performance.

... <snip> ... I also realized that since the underlying number ain't gonna change, this can remain on my to-do list until we are way past game 1M. And so it probably will as I work on other stuff which I think we need more urgently

And, until antony trupe's really helpful gravedig*, this thread had been dormant for almost 9 months.

Unless the need to reform game numbers has now become really pressing (and someone can present a good argument as to why it has) I for one would be happy to see it achieve that status again ...


* so that he could do "BOOB" is a word you can make in hex jokes ...

[yeti_c]

* so that he could do "BOOB" is a word you can make in hex jokes ...

I think you mean B00B?

C.

[chipv]

Now that game 1M is around the corner I finally took some time to ponder these suggestions for our game numbering system.

I have concluded that the underlying key should remain a plain old number. For one thing, that makes it easy for the database to auto-increment. Any change to underlying key would require too much re-coding of many parts of the website and may affect performance.

Having said that, we can "hide" the underlying game# and show a shorter key as long as it can be translated back and forth to the real number.

So hexadecimal and A999999 and AAZ would work. TCLA-xxxxxx and MMYYxxxxxx would not.

I also realized that since the underlying number ain't gonna change, this can remain on my to-do list until we are way past game 1M. And so it probably will as I work on other stuff which I think we need more urgently

100% agreed on keeping the game number numerical in the database, will affect performance.
Translation is worth considering from a users point of view. (I don't see any problem with presenting the user with a translation of
e.g. TS999999 (Terminator, Speed) since the properties Terminator and Speed must be in the same database as the number 999999.

Small example for output:

SELECT TYPE,ROUND,NUM FROM Games WHERE whatever
and then echo just TYPE.ROUND.NUM so user sees TS999999 instead of just NUM

User can now instantly see that game is terminator whilst not affecting the query condition.

Input: Present the translation to the user, but just use the number for querying.

<td align="center"><span class="gameno">TS999999</span>[<a href="game.php?game=999999">Enter Game</a>]</td>

Game finder can just strip the characters in the game number textbox in javascript before sending the form.

This is not so bad because the additional data T,S are already presented to the user in the same row.
So no extra overhead just different echo.

Probably not made myself very clear but since you're considering translation, I suggest something meaningful to the user.