Re: [boost] Re: Network library: What we have until now

From: Iain Hanson (Iain.Hanson_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-04-14 13:03:19

On Thu, 2005-04-14 at 06:43 -0700, Don G wrote:
> Hi Iain,
> 
> > Not all platforms have threads. There may even be
> > some that don't supply co-operative multi-tasking.
> 
> I'm sure they exist. Can we name any that are important to this
> design?

I don't know which specifically but it will probably be the RTOS'es
such as PSOS, VxWorks, maybe QNX, and Symbian plus maybe others.

> At issue here, for me<g>, is that the grouping of objects to
> select/whatever calls is non-portable. In other words, the select_set
> class must do many silly things on some platforms to support a bad
> mixture or too many. So, in my proposal, this is in the realm of
> internals.

Platform select may not be completely portable but the concept is
supported across most if not all platforms that I am aware of.
Therefore, it is not hard to abstract a standard set of behaviour
for C++ and leave the Lib implementation to deal with the differences.
Ace call the the Reactor.
> 
> > BTW callbacks are just *one* way that async
> > completion can be reported.
> 
> Agreed. But don't we have to pick something? ;)

Why? aio supports polling, callbacks, and signals. Different users have
differing needs and a good Lib will support the different patterns.

/ikh