"cooperative" services (was Re: [DotGNU]Last call for 'This Year ...')

[Stephen Compall]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Ian Fung wrote:
> what do you mean when webservices cooperate? just wanted to make
> sure i understood.

To clarify:

>> cooperative: The main defining difference between webservices and
>> network applications in general (for me) is that webservices
>> cooperate over a single network transport, whereas traditional
>> network apps each must stake out their own territory (i.e., a
>> network port number).

"Normal" network services make themselves available by attaching to a
port on the system and listening for all connections to that port.
The distinction I make is that webservices share the network transport
(be it port or Jabber connection) rely on an external coordinator
(see*port, in this case) to understand a common protocol (HTTP on port
80, e.g.) and extract a "path" in order to figure out which service
should receive the request.

Theoretically, there is no difference between the "soft" distinction
that a TCP/IP network handler in a kernel makes between ports by
extracting such from the protocol, and the "soft" distinction that
seeHTTPport makes between "paths".  Usual implementation (as in, the
SEE is not part of any kernel...yet ;) dictates otherwise, besides the
vastly increased possibilities of paths, and their reduced
distinguishability in terms of "network transport" (to outside tools,
such as fascist firewalls).

- --
Stephen Compall - Also known as S11001001
DotGNU `Contributor' -- http://dotgnu.org
Jabber ID: address@hidden

show me the ways to button up buttons that have forgotten they're
  buttons
well we can't have that forgetting that
        -- Tori Amos, "Yes Anastasia"

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.1 (GNU/Linux)

iD8DBQE+EyAY2AceYinZ4EgRAglfAJ49qzR4KoCLDj5sGR9F0Sz5B1zTbgCeJyPS
HhmaFNkVkXrMTm1CnLdxrJo=
=WHPc
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----