Re: [boost] [http] Formal review of Boost.Http

Subject: Re: [boost] [http] Formal review of Boost.Http
From: Vinícius dos Santos Oliveira (vini.ipsmaker_at_[hidden])
Date: 2015-08-15 11:27:52

2015-08-15 9:28 GMT-03:00 Roland Bock <rbock_at_[hidden]>:

> "You should send a 100-continue to ask for the rest of the body if
> required."
>
> If it is required, it is required. Why do I have to check for it myself?
> The library should take care of that (unless I tell it not to, because I
> want to do my own magic).
>

Fair. I could add some magic to this.

Similar with chunking. If I send chunks and I
> should not, can't the library take care of it by default (i.e. by
> buffering the data)?
>

The library could fallback to buffering if chunk is unsupported, but it is
a mistake (as such, an error is raised[1]). You'll segfault your
application if you try to stream a live video stream and the library
implicitly starts to buffer the response thanks to inability of the
underlying communication channel in provide native stream. This API would
be highly unsafe. It's not worthy. If you don't need native stream, just
send the whole message at once. It's extremely simple. I don't see a point
here. If your message doesn't have an infinite size, you'll just write the
body and schedule the message to be written. No big deal.

Or this:
>
> self->socket.async_write_response(200, string_ref("OK"), reply, yield);
>
> Admittedly, not horribly much to write, but since I am using an HTTP
> library, I would have expected convenience functions and enums that make
> sure I do not mess stuff up (e.g. by sending 404/OK).
>

There is already a function to make this task safer:
https://boostgsoc14.github.io/boost.http/reference/async_write_response.html

It just you happens to write more than just "OK". User preferences, both
styles are supported.

I cannot really tell what else is all missing, but the documentation
> seems to be rather incomplete.
>

Actually, the documentation is quite exhaustive. However, it lacks examples
(i.e. it says what/how/why, but it won't give an example) and a more
teaching approach (I need to draft a plan on how I can improve this (lack
of) skill of mine or find contributors).

[1] native_stream_unsupported,
https://boostgsoc14.github.io/boost.http/reference/http_errc.html

-- 
Vinícius dos Santos Oliveira
https://about.me/vinipsmaker