Code Optimizations

Written on January 12, 2008 by Mike Gerwitz

Development of MyCustomBB has been a bit slow lately, but not without reason. I’ve been going over the code to modify and optimize a number of things. Speed has always been one of MyCustomBB’s goals, but I’ve been doing a fair deal of research into optimizing the code and feel that it will defiantly pay off, especially when it’s used for sites that get a great deal of visitors per day.

Such optimizations have also introduced a “datapack” class - essentially, it is a small file system within a file (a pack). There are two types - the standard one, which is optimized for reading and portability (consisting of a single file), and a keypack, which is optimized for writing (consisting of two separate files, one to store the data and the other to store the descriptors for that data). The datapack will be used for information that is primarily read from, as it is very slow to write to (such as language packs). The keypacks will be used for caching.

I’m also taking this time to go over the code and conform it to the new coding standards (which I will make available in the coming months). With all of these changes, I’m essentially re-writing much of the project, with the exception of the template system. The template system is nearly ready for its next BETA release, though that will come after all of the code optimizations.

There are also a couple other exciting developments that I will keep under wraps for now until I ensure they will work properly.

Posted in Development