home .. forth .. colorforth mail list archive ..

Re: [colorforth] TCP State Engine


Hello Jonah,

First thanks for clearing some of this up.  Perhaps
I like clarity to a fault. ;)

--- Jonah Thomas <j2thomas@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> > The last sentence is the only one that I can
> follow.
> > If your message fits in one UDP packet then just
> > use UDP.  I don't see the point of stripping down
> > TCP to UDP.
> 
> TCP does more than splitting large packets, it also
> provides 
> confirmation whether messages get through.
> 
> And my point is to first do the part you need now.

Well I suppose that's one way to go about it.  My
first thought would be to use UDP but then add
message confirmation at the application level.
 
> > 1) Much of the complexity of IE4 has nothing to
> > do with TCP so it's a bad example to use.
> 
> The only reason I brought it up was that people
> talked about using TCP 
> for a web browser.  The web browser looks like a
> complex project.

I understand.  But I think we're looking at the
wrong protocol level.  Consider this.  While
HTML has changed much over the years, HTTP has
not.  We're now up to HTML 4.0 and XHTML.
HTTP is only at HTTP 1.1 and IE4 was 
implemented on HTTP 1.0.  That's the same 
HTTP 1.0 that MOSAIC ran over.  So even if 
you wanted to implement a full "Mozilla" or
"IE 6.0" browser you're still looking at
the needs of HTTP rather than the needs of
the end browser for your TCP stack.
 
Oh, and I thought the "refrigerator browser"
applications you gave were interesting.  I
didn't comment on that because my email
client "truncated" the rest of the message
when I was replying.  Perhaps what I would
want most to be able to do from my 
refrigerator would be to place an order
for more groceries without having to fire
up my PC or even find my cell phone. :)

Another HTTP application is that of "web
services".  While SOAP is horribly complex
(to me anyway), XMLRPC is very easy to
implement.  (I wrote my own client in
Oberon in < 5k).  Back to the
"refrigerator" example, one could use
any user interface he wanted on the
refrigerator "client" and then let it
communicate with the grocery store 
"server" using a web service to 
place the order.

Regards,

John M. Drake


	
		
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Photos: High-quality 4x6 digital prints for 25¢
http://photos.yahoo.com/ph/print_splash

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: colorforth-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
For additional commands, e-mail: colorforth-help@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Main web page - http://www.colorforth.com