Script Limits: what should they be?

If there were script limits from the beginning, then this would not be a problem.

I'm not the most technically savvy person, so maybe I'm naive to think that script limits is something that should have been anticipated from the start.

However, much of my prior internet experience comes from MUSHes. MUSHes had a scripting language a lot like LSL. MUSHes had a simplistic way of limiting scripts. Some functions were flagged as been higher resource hogs than others. MUSH administrators had several options in limiting abuse of high-resource functions. One would be to limit certain functions to certain users only; another was to require a deposit of tokens (play money) when running certain functions. The utility of the resource-consuming functions remained available, but the limits lowered abuse and over-use.

Simplistically speaking, if the concept of limiting high resource scripting functions to maintain stability was around with MUSHes since the early 90s (or earlier), I would think ot is a concept that Linden Lab should have considered when developing Second Life. Especially given the fact that it was geared toward encouraging all residents to participate in content creation, like with scripting.

(Or, in other words, if the problem is immediately obvious to someone with my limited knowledge, then it absolutely must be obvious to a technically knowledgeable designer.)

So scripting limits should have been rolled out a long time ago. When first implemented, they will cause some chaos when the things to which everyone is accustomed to working suddenly stop working. I think this could have been avoided with anticipation.

Still, better late than never. Even though I only have a limited understanding of the technical discussion, it sounds like Linden Lab is on the right track.

Whatever happens, script limits bloody well better not disrupt over 130,000 USD of commercial transactions using parcel tier meters.

By far the most of that goes to the Company in tier payments anyway.

Probably *not* a good idea to disrupt us!

I'm not sure LL are talking about limiting what you can DO with a script, or if a script will run at all, I suspect it's more along the lines of if you're using more than your fair share of resources, then expect your scripts to run slower. So if your share of resources is 10% of the total, then that 10% will be spread across a lot of scripts, or eaten up quickly by several hungry scripts, resulting in all your scripts slowing down. Meanwhile, if you have a load of efficient scripts, then they'll run nice and quickly, and probably leave some resources to spare.

On the technical side what they need to do is get a value for how many instructions per second each parcel and avatar is allowed per-frame, as this can be more easily divided up. This way, when the frame executes it goes through each script user and runs the number of instructions they're allowed.

This is why they need to widen the scope regarding opinions on this from scripters to pretty much everyone, because there are issues that non scripters will highlight that are damn important to this project, one of which you highlight very eloquently.

It's mostly the same idea, conceptually. The main point is to find a way to make the users internalize the costs of the scripts they are using. If your neighbors are suffering more from the stress that your scripts are causing than you are, you have less incentive to be efficient with them and make careful decisions about what to use and what not to use. If you suffer from most of the stress than your scripts are causing, now you have an incentive to be careful and efficient.

They're talking in terms of a system similar to prims, the more you pay, the more resources you get. It has been mentioned that you may find an object won't rez if your parcel's resource limit has been reached.

I'm not wild about Kelly comparing this to the avatar rendering cost, given how many ways THAT is incorrectly calculated...

that was the one thing that made me cringe too. There's already been two factors mentioned: CPU cycles and RAM. How does one calculate a scripts "cost"? It's not a easy task.