Represent health as a float

[jamierocks]

This is what Minecraft uses - I see no reason why the API shouldn't

[Techcable]

👎 doubles are future-proof, and are more common

[jamierocks]

More common, but not what Minecraft uses.

[Techcable]

It's a simple cast, and we won't have to break plugins if minecraft ever changes (like back when it changed from int to float).

[wgaylord]

True. But if they change it there will be a version bump so people should update anyways.

[Techcable]

@chibill We want to maximize compatibility across versions, and make it easier for plugins. Doubles do both.

[PizzaCrust]

:+1: doesn't floats use less memory than doubles?

[sgdc3]

@PizzaCrust yeah but nothing relevant

[Techcable]

@PizzaCrust Fun-fact: on 64 bit machines, floats sometimes take as much memory as a double because of word alignment. if you have a float and then a pointer in memory, the float will actually be padded with 4 more bytes to ensure the pointer is word-alligned (IE: memory address is a multiple of 4 bytes). Additionally, when the memory is in a register on a 64 bit machine, they will take up the same amount of memory, since its stupid to stuff two values in a register.

So like @sgdc3 said, the overhead is negligable and in fact, in this case, its non-existent, since the double will only be there for a little bit until its cast to a float, and will take the same amount of space in a register as a float.