Hi Chuck!
I don't have an objection but I do want to point out an interesting
use-case we discovered on the 0mq side related to initialization. The
default values for various socket options oftentimes need to be
overridden with new values. There is a zmq_ctx_set()/zmq_ctx_get()
function pair for resetting these global values. This is far more
convenient than setting socket options every time a socket is
created.
I recommend something similar for nanomsg. The init/term functions
may disappear but the concept of a global state should probably
remain.
First of all, the global state does actually exist, so it is technically
possible to set process-wide properties.
From the theoretic perspective, the question of global properties is an
interesting one.
One principle that should hold, IMO, is that moving a thread from one
process to another one should not break what it does. I.e. it should not
corrupt its business logic. The implication is that global properties
should not affect *what* particular socket does, although they can
affect *how* it does it (QoS).
What we get is the classic mechanism/policy separation, where policy
options can be global (process scope, machine scope, even topology
scope), but mechanism options are always local to the socket.
Martin
