Topic: Poker/Casino Programming - page 2. (Read 19587 times)

I haven't been making millions off the industry like those large poker sites, but my gut tells me that potential customers would be more willing to try a no-download version, e.g. an in-browser java, html5, or flash setup.  Especially since bitcoin users are less willing to download exe files than the common PC user.

Back up the wallet every so often. And you probably mean generate a new address for each transaction. Although I'm sure you could just make a unique address for each player then you can keep track of money put in by each player.

I'm going to write some poker software and then probably expand it to general gambling with bitcoins, and I had some general questions which you don't have to be a programmer to answer.  I write in a number of languages, and I'm trying to determine which one I should use. 

PHP/AJAX would be for absolute ease and fast development, while not necessarily being efficient (or arguable robust) which may become a concern if a considerably large amount of people start playing there.  Also, my basic tests so far on local ajax client->server->clients type of events is not that great; it's fairly quick, but not particularly great.

C or C++ would be for speed, both on the server end and the client end.  Everything would be over UDP.  I think it is possible to put http over UDP, and there are probably already some examples or something of that nature that outline this; still, I think if I went that route, I might as well do it in C/C++.  The only reason I have against using native binaries is that it requires installation or at least running of the binary on the system, whereas PHP requires no download -- there is something to be said about ease of use to the end-user.

Last one on my list of candidates is Java (I'd probably write the server in C/C++, though).  I personally am not an advocate of java, but only having to load an applet seems simpler.

If I follow the large poker site's examples, I should just write it as a program and have the user download.  This is where I'm leaning.

Aside from the question of language, I have a question regarding transactions.  I've read somewhere on these forums at one point that I should be 1) backing up the wallet on every transaction (and storing the backups in multiple locations of course), and 2) generate a new wallet for each transaction (not sure if that's correct).  What are your thoughts on this?

Regarding initial deposits, I know it's in the wiki that there could be some sort of escrow service that could allow the user to instantly be credited; lacking that, should I just make the user wait until it's been validated by X keys (excuse me if I am not using the proper bitcoin-centered terminology)?

Thanks for the input.