Re: JGNAT, Byte arrays, and Stream_Element_Arrays

["Marc A. Criley" <mcquadex@earthlink.net>]

Stephen Leake wrote:
> 
> "Marc A. Criley" <mcquadex@earthlink.net> writes:
> 
> > The idea of trying to get the DSA to work with a natively compiled
> > server and a JVM client scares me even more than using the Java sockets
> > class!
> 
> I gather you are not familiar with the DSA, but are familiar with
> sockets. However, the DSA was _designed_ to solve exactly the problem
> you are experiencing, in a _portable_ way. Sockets are a low-level
> tool in the solution.
> 
> Think of it this way; the DSA is to sockets as Ada rendezvous and
> protected types are to mutex and semaphores.
> 
> Take the time to learn the DSA; it will be worth it! (Well, assuming
> the DSA is implemented by JGNAT; if not, maybe you could now implement
> it, and do us all a great service).
> 

Actually I am comfortable with the DSA, though I've not used it on a
production contract, I've messed around with it a lot at home. 
Before..uh..certain factors came into play at my former employer, I had
started to lay out the design for a migration from an explicit
socket-based IPC to the DSA facilities.  I changed employers before
anything could come of it, though.

Using JGNAT to generate the client isn't being done entirely for the
novelty value :-), there is a _code_ portability factor, as well as the
potential for running the client as an (gn)applet.  For easing data
portability I may get into an XML approach (and the
design/implementation is flexible enough to "plug in" an XML "conversion
module"), but I'm focusing on raw functionality at the moment.

Marc A. Criley