Re: [boost] Re: async socket i/o [long]

From: Caleb Epstein (caleb.epstein_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-04-12 09:17:56

On Apr 12, 2005 12:17 AM, Don G <dongryphon_at_[hidden]> wrote:

> 1. Should the network library provide different choices of
> implementation to the user? For the most part, the platform will
> dictate the available solutions, so having the user decide would make
> their code non-portable. [my thought so far is no]

I disagree.  On some platforms, there are multiple choices for the
underlying event dispatching implementation.  For example, on Linux
you can use select, poll, or on newer kernels, epoll and kqueue.

Even on Windows, there is more than one implementation that can be
used (e.g. WaitForMultipleObjects, select (which I assume just wraps
WFMO), and IO Completion Ports).

Some of these are semi-portable (e.g. select, poll) but the others are
very specific to the platform.  As a user I want the ability to choose
the one that is most suitable to the task at hand.

> 2. Would it be better perhaps to only provide behavior choices (sync,
> async, non-blocking) as part of the interface? [my thought is yes]

Not sure what you mean here.  Connections may be either synchronous or
asynchronous?  This seems too limiting IMHO.

-- 
Caleb Epstein
caleb dot epstein at gmail dot com