Initial design notes for Whirled.

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docs/whirled/design.txt

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+Whirled Design -*- mode: outline -*-
+
+* Overview
+Whirled builds on top of the Cocktail platform and provides a framework
+for building a virtual world made up of a node network of individual
+scenes. In the abstract, scenes contain only exits to other scenes and the
+world is one big directed graph. This is not unlike the structure of MUDs
+where one classically thinks of rooms and exits. We've chosen the term
+scene to avoid implying that we're indoors.
+
+Whirled provides a means by which clients can move from scene to scene,
+and to different locations within the scene (though restricting clients to
+movement only to a pre-defined list of locations within the scene is
+optional).
+
+The scene information needed by the client may differ from that needed by
+the server. Specifically, the server may need only know about exits to
+other scenes, whereas the client will need to know how to render a scene
+which may involve substantially more information (tile lists for top-down
+and isometric renderings or a 3D scene model). To this end, Whirled
+provides services for building static scene bundles that can be included
+with the client and then updated over the wire if the client enters a
+particular scene and needs updated scene information. Using these
+services, the world can change and evolve and the client can be sure to
+always have the correct scene information. Excessive downloading can be
+avoided by seeding the client's scene database with a snapshot of the
+system at the time the client is delivered, and subsequent snapshots can
+be provided periodically to bring all clients into sync with the runtime
+scene database, from which they can then continue to mirror updates as
+needed.
+
+* Notes