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multithreadingsocketsserversocket

chess game online: how to design the server

I'm developing a chess game online.

My idea is to make the server as the place where the data communicate from one player to the other.

So here is my plan to continue:
When two players connect the server(with TCP), the server create two threads for both of them. It means that the two threads need to communicate each other.

// server
while(true)
{
    if(socket.accept())
    {
        create_a_thread(); // handle one player
    }
}

But one game needs two threads in the server? I don't think this is a good design.

How should I redesign my server?

Solution

  • Two thoughts on the conceptual layer:

    • Are you sure you want to have all users go through your server? Why not do some peer-to-peer between two players?!
    • When going through a central server, you don't need a 1-1 "relation" between two players. Your server could introduce an API like makeMove(Game g, Move m) where one player just pushes the move to the server, and the server then sends a notification to that one client.

    What I mean is: it is important to keep things as simple as possible. When you build a mental model of a chess game; yes, then the first idea is that even your server would need that notion of a "game" of "two connected" users. But that isn't necessarily true. Rather see the server as a "mail box" where you put a letter "here is my next move"; and the server makes sure it gets to the other player!

    Long story short: you should first identify the core responsibilities within your server (like: "receiving user requests", "processing user requests", "send notifications"); and then you look into "multi-threading" those.