[Mod-pubsub-general] RE: General mod_pubsub questions

[Adam R. <Ad...@Kn...>]

Lucas wrote:
> No worries about the clarity, you can tell Joyce I said so. :)

I believe she's on the list here.  Just slumbering. ;)

> I read in an earlier message that the Perl CGI won't scale very well.
> Is this a because it is a Perl CGI, or because lots of open
connections
> use lots of server resources?

Ah, depends on what you mean by "won't scale very well".

The Perl CGI supports on the order of a dozen connections and
on the order of a dozen messages per second.  Good enough for
many apps.

But yes, the main reasons it gets O(10's) is because it's running
as a CGI script, and because the server is keeping those open
connections.

> What can be done to increase scalability?

Running the Perl scripts as an Apache module ups
the number of connections to O(100) and the messages/second to O(100).

Running the Python server from a command line can increase the number
of connections even more.

And, there's an experimental connection pooler (under the directory
push_manager) for the Perl scripts to manage more connections and
messages/second.

> I have a friend who claims he is hosting 10s of thousands of
> simultaneous open connections over HTTP for an online Flash game...

Using just FlashMX or using a custom Server?

> Would IIS have to use a module rather than a regular connection
> because a regular connection can't keep itself open?

I don't know enough about IIS to make a judgment call on this one.
I was thinking a module would give IIS a way to plug in optimized code.

> Regarding the live javascript connection... Brilliant!
> (though hacky... I guess sometimes those go together)

Around here, they go together like chocolate and peanut butter.

Mmmm... Peanut butter...

   :) Adam




-----Original Message-----
From: Lucas W. Fletcher [mailto:lu...@de...]=20
Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2003 1:38 PM
To: Adam Rifkin
Cc: mod...@li...
Subject: Re: General mod_pubsub questions


Thank you for that. No worries about the clarity, you can tell Joyce I
said so. :)

I read in an earlier message that the Perl CGI won't scale very well. Is
this a because it is a Perl CGI, or because lots of open connections use
lots of server resources? What can be done to increase scalability? I
have a friend who claims he is hosting 10s of thousands of simultaneous
open connections over HTTP for an online Flash game...

Would IIS have to use a module rather than a regular connection because
a regular connection can't keep itself open?

Regarding the live javascript connection... Brilliant! (though hacky...
I guess sometimes those go together)

Lucas

----- Original Message -----
From: "Adam Rifkin" <Ad...@Kn...>
To: "Lucas W. Fletcher" <lu...@de...>
Cc: <mod...@li...>
Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2003 12:53 PM
Subject: RE: General mod_pubsub questions


Lucas wrote:
> Sorry that it's come to this but I've looked everywhere for the
answers
> and I have come up short.

No problem!  We love to get questions.  I hope I can answer them well --
Joyce says that I always *think* I write better than I actually do.  If
what I say isn't clear, please clarify the question and I will try
again.

> 1. I heard rumor that the browser client works without polling. (this
is
> what piqued my interest)

It's true, the browser client works without polling.

> If so, how does it do it without client-side installs? Does it stream
a
> javascript file or something?

Close.  The PubSub Server sends down some JavaScript to a hidden frame
in the browser page.  The JavaScript keeps the connection alive, and
accepts incoming messages on the topics that have been subscribed to --
and then the browser page can do something with those messages as they
stream in.

> 2. Can I run the server on IIS? The claim is made that "scripts can be

> used with other Web Servers as well." Does this mean the perl cgi?

Yes.  We eventually hope to support a native ISAPI module, but for the
meantime you can run the Perl CGI scripts to give your IIS this
functionality. Note that we don't have much experience running in this
configuration so we'd love some feedback...

> 3. The c++ stuff. Am I right to assume that this alone will not handle
a
> web client?

Well, the C++ stuff can be compiled so that your Internet Explorer web
client could use it with ActiveX controls through its COM interfaces.

But you're right, the primary thing we use it for is to PubSub-enable
Visual Basic and Visual C++ applications.

   Adam



-----Original Message-----
From: Lucas W. Fletcher [mailto:lu...@de...]
Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2003 11:47 AM
To: mod...@li...
Subject: Re: [Mod-pubsub-general] Fw: problem linking dotnet version

Thank you, I hope to...

Sorry that it's come to this but I've looked everywhere for the answers
and I have come up short. So I was wondering if one of you might take
pity on me. I have some really basic questions:

1.    I heard rumor that the browser client works without polling. (this
is
what piqued my interest) If so, how does it do it without client-side
installs? Does it stream a javascript file or something?

2.    Can I run the server on IIS? The claim is made that "scripts can
be
used with other Web Servers as well." Does this mean the perl cgi?

3.    The c++ stuff. Am I right to assume that this alone will not
handle a
web client?

Thanks again,

Lucas Fletcher
lu...@de...
http://dealersinnotions.com