Re: [boost] asio formal review begins

From: Reece Dunn (msclrhd_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-12-10 17:53:10

Jeff Garland wrote:
> All -
> 
> Today (Dec 10th) is the start of the format review of the Asynchronous 
> I/O library (asio) library by Christopher Kohlhoff. The review will run 
> until Friday December 23rd.  I will be serving as review manager.

I am not that well versed in the target domain, but I do have a basic 
understanding of how everything works.

As has been mentioned, having a (standard) socket API will greatly help 
C++ compete with other languages that have extensive libraries such as Java.

I have only taken a cursory glance at the docs at the moment. From what 
I have read, there is built in support for TCP and UDP I/O, but you 
could extend this to support other transports such as asynchronous files 
or named pipes. Is the interface generic enough so I can do this easily? 
How would I provide this functionality? (If this is in the docs, please 
tell me to RTFM ;) hopefully with a link to where in the docs it is).

Another question: is there a way I can bind a socket to an I/O stream so 
I can easily send data across a network.

Also, what would be interesting is an asynchronous serialisation archive 
so you can serialise/deserialise classes across a network like you can 
in Java.

The documentation does not make it clear exactly what functionality is 
available, so the docs could be clearer. For example, I didn't know the 
library supported IPv4 addresses before looking at the reference.

It may be useful at some point to have support for IPv6 addresses. The 
main question is will these be compatible with the library as it 
interacts with the IPv4 addresses.

NOTE: I haven't made up my mind yet, but I will place a preliminary YES 
vote.

- Reece