[openbeos] Re: Preferences/File Help

  • From: "Nathan Whitehorn" <nathan.whitehorn@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: openbeos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2002 14:55:41 -0600 (CST)

> Server advantages:
> Multi-threading is easy (send an asynch BMessage)

But you have to catch it later. For things responding, often it is 
sync, or there is complex async receive code. No harder than a shared 
lib.

> Code is seperate from yours

This is an advantage, why? If it crashes, you are still dealing with th 
einability of your app to function. Look what happens to net apps when 
net_server crashes.

> Accessible easily from scripting languages

How so? If I'm translating a BMessage into XML, I have to tell the 
scripting language what a BMessage is first. Also, most scripting 
languages can talk to C symbols in a ... shared library, but may not 
know about messaging.

> Any initialization time can be shared easily (the example I did for 
> the newsletter with the dictionary is a good example)

This is true. But we were talking about flattening BMessages and 
getting preferences, were we not? Init time is nil.

> Easily extensible without recompiling any clients

How so? Extension is impossible without either telling the clients, or 
having a config interface. Shared libs can read config files just as 
well as servers.

> No FBC issues

If the client interface is encapsulated in a class, there are FBC 
issues. If not, there would be none in a shared lib either.
 
> Library advantages
> No IPC time
> No time to stuff/unstuff a BMessage
> Ability to subclass

> Kit advantages (Server + Client stub)
> Really all of both. You can have libraries do the quick and easy 
> stuff, and servers do the heavy lifting.

This is *not* a Kit. A kit is a collection of interfaces. The Device 
Kit is a serverless Kit, as is Translation, Support, and Storage. 
Surely you wouldn't argue a server for those?
-Nathan


--
Fortune Cookie Says:

Just about every computer on the market today runs Unix, except the Mac
(and nobody cares about it).
                -- Bill Joy 6/21/85


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