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Why this is here.

While working on a project, I realized that I needed a state machine which operates on a web server.  I also realized that I was too cheap to upgrade my shared server to a virtual server.  Thus, I was stuck with CGI, which begins execution when a request is received, and halts when the response has been sent.  No data, e.g. state, can be saved between requests.

I researched previous state machines.  All but one were intended for continuous execution.  The other one was part of a much larger library, not free, and far more complicated than I needed.  In addition, I noted that all were structured as a generator to build the state machine, which is then executed.  I further noted that the generators expected data specifying the state machine in different places: state names in one place, transitions in another, and state functions in another. 

So my goal became to generate a state machine (1) with all data related to one state in the same place, and (2) which does not require continuous execution.  I felt the former would make it easier to add, delete and maintain the states.  The latter was required by the CGI environment. 

I believe I have satisfied these goals.

Posted by DNC 2015-08-12 Labels: Purpose

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