[3Nex]

Hi,

I'm starting to write a little web based game using php and ajax. I'm concerened about how to make that game real time and what's the best way to do it. Picture playing chess for example, how will I tell a player that his opponent played his move and it's his turn now? It would take a lot of requests every few seconds and, along with the hosting problems, I'm starting to think it may produce some conflicts also if server becomes preoccupied and then you receive no response, lose time on your move, then receive a dozen late responses at one time...

Alternatively to ajax requests, I found an article explaining the use of persistant connection using flash which acts just as a little connection between my server and client's javascript. I don't know how that works yet tho. I guess it's worth mentioning I now nothing about flash and that's why the game will be in ajax.

I don't mind if the end result will be a game playable only in Firefox, as long as it works in Firefox. So, I guess I'm hoping for your best ideas or experiences in this department.

Oh, I almost forgot. You know when someone types in Google Wave, you can see right away what they're typing and how they're changing it. How does that work?

Thanks.