Asynchronous, Bi-Directional ONC-RPC: status + input requested

David Merrill dmerrill@lupercalia.net
Tue, 2 Jan 2001 16:37:52 -0500


On Tue, Jan 02, 2001 at 04:25:53PM -0500, Derek Atkins wrote:
> David Merrill <dmerrill@lupercalia.net> writes:
> 
> > Tell me why asynchronous calls are needed? Indeed, tell me why
> > callbacks are needed at all. What's so wrong with the client blocking
> > on a server call? If the call takes long enough for the user to notice
> > the blocking, it is a bug. K.I.S.S.
> 
> There is nothing inherently wrong with clients blocking for calls.
> The "problem" occurs when you try to implement callbacks.  Perhaps I
> wasn't clear in my ramblings?

You were clear; I'm asking a slightly different question.

I am not convinced that keeping clients up to date is necessary. I am
thinking of a paradigm just like a web interface to the engine, and you
get new data by hitting refresh. If you really need new data, you can
get it whenever you want it.

Tell me what practical problems this would pose for the user and/or
the system. Increased network traffic? I'm not sure about that,
because many, many users would never bother to refresh. Most real
installations would have a single person accessing any given account
at a time, and probably one person, period, with access to the data.
Write access, anyway.

It seems that you're designing a system to handle 100 clerks sitting
at terminals typing away, and I don't think that's realistic. It
certainly makes the system far more powerful and scaleable - I just
think you're adding lots of complexity for little real-world gain.

If you haven't noticed by now, I am very much a minimalist. Get the
job done as simply as possible. And no simpler. :-)

-- 
Dr. David C. Merrill                     http://www.lupercalia.net
Linux Documentation Project                dmerrill@lupercalia.net
Collection Editor & Coordinator            http://www.linuxdoc.org
                                       Finger me for my public key

Corn and Grain, Corn and Grain
All that falls shall rise again