[pskmail] Re: Aw: Kind of silly question...
- From: Tarmo Huttunen <tarmopaha@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: pskmail@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 17:56:50 +0300
Thanks, this was the perfect answer and you have used lot of time to answer
for only a silly question :)
I can see now, that originally you were thinking not so server-based
communication system as it has grow up now. It makes sense.
For my own question "what is server doing, what is not doable on client
station with internet connection"...I did not realize that server is not
running on windows. So the answer is "usual client just can not run
server". Hmm, windows-clients are depended of linux-servers...it kind of
reminds me something...
It is pitty that servers have to provide most capabilities on pskmail-net,
and usual clients can mostly be consumers. (Igate is great improvement on
this. Maybe someday it is extended to carry aprs-shortmails or something
like.)
One way to use clients for common benefit would be to use them as
additional receivers...you mentioned your problem with noise ;) After all
raw data (charaters) received with fldigi would be quite low amount of data
to be send. Or only correctly received arq-frames could be sent to..some
webpage to be used for lynx, as an alternative receiver source for
everybody ..okay, it is time to stop dreaming...
Tarmo, OH6ECF
On Sep 11, 2014 1:10 PM, "Rein Couperus" <rein@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Interesting question...
>
> Actually, when the PSKmail project started in 2003, server and client were
> one program.
> There is still a lot of code in the server which is not used because it
> belongs to
> the client :-). The project was started using the best programming
> language for this
> type of job, PERL. And during the first 2 years client and server used the
> same program.
> Look at the server code and find the global variable with the name:
> $Iamserver.
>
> I never liked the move to reprogram the client in java, but we were forced
> by the
> users claiming that they could not run the software on M$ Window$.
> I still suffer from the mental health trauma caused by having to learn the
> java language,
> which I find completely unfit for the job of writing a fast application
> without unnecessary
> overhead. But fact is, we now have a client which runs on all OS platforms.
>
> Now there is no technical reason for also rewriting the server functions
> into java and live in the
> client. The present server takes 2% CPU on the banana pi, so that would
> not be
> a reason for not doing it.
>
> The real barrier is time and capacity. We would need some excellent java
> programmers
> with lots of spare time to do it. The main philosophy behind PSKmail is to
> not reinvent
> the wheel, but use round ones wherever feasible, and use the sparse
> capacity available
> to do new things which will improve the quality of the "product".
> That is why PSKmail uses Fldigi, Hamlib, APRS infrastructure, and
> ready-to-go PERL modules
> wherever possible. Those modules are maintained by an enthousiastic group
> of people who
> put LOTS of time into it. Without them PSKmail would be dead as a dodo...
> E.g. if we would not have John, VK2ETA, AndPSKmail and the V2 modem would
> not exist.
> (Having said that, we need somebody to convert the DominoEx modem into
> java!!)
>
> The java Client already contains a full-fledged Igate for APRS. What
> would have to be done
> is a.o. a "linked stations" database in the client/server so that APRS
> messages to other clients
> are only sent by the client/server owning the link to te destination.
>
> Also, all interfacing with mail servers would have to be rewritten in
> java. That includes
> all POP, SMTP, TELNET and WGET functionality, including the functions now
> performed by
> lynx and elinks browsers, which don't run on in Window$ machine.
> Not to mention the server-to-server DTN functionality now available on the
> present server.
>
> As you may imagine, this would need LOTS of programming capacity.
> Impossible for the
> one-and-a-half-man band operation we run now.
>
> But I am not giving up hope... maybe sometime some people will donate
> their spare time
> for a project providing massive fun?
>
> At the moment I am working on an improved memory arq concept for PSKmail,
> as we still
> have massive problems on noisy locations (I have S7-8 noise on our
> campsite in Spain).
> That includes using the DominoEx modems which are a fast version of THOR.
> These are
> only available in fldigi at the moment, which forces me to use the V1
> flavour of pskmail
> with fldigi at the moment.
>
> Hope this somehow answers your "stupid" question...
>
> 73,
>
> Rein PA0R
>
> Some questions are just too stupid to be left unquestioned...
>
> Why have to be pskmail server and client somewhat different software?
> If talking about flexible and independent network, why cannot every client
> be server if needed?
> Actually, what is server doing what is not doable in client station with
> internet connection?
>
> Why pskmail-GUI could not have checkbox "allow server functions" :) Or we
> can say, could server be part of client istallation? (Oh my, think V2 with
> integrated server...)( Oh my, Oh my, think about andPskmail with
> integrated server... :D )
> These are not demands or proposals, just silly thoughts about pskmail and
> its future.
>
> If thinking of emergency communication, any sort of global crisis would
> block pskmail because too much load on relatively low amount of servers? Or
> is it so?
>
>
> Tarmo, OH6ECF
>
>
>
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