Re: Architecture advice requested

Hi


Rocco Caputo wrote:
> It's unfair to ask for a comprehensive ("avoid as many dead ends as 
> possible") analysis of a complex system that is only described in 
> basic terms.  The best anyone can do under these circumstances is 
> provide generic advice.  Specific advice will invariably miss some 
> hitherto unexplained detail that invalidates the analyst's assumptions 
> and sets them back.  Repeat for every mis- or insufficiently 
> understood detail, and the frustration (and time cost) mount.  One set 
> of dead ends has been replaced with another.

Sure - agree completely.  For that very reason I'm just trying to get 
the skeleton roughly right first

> The best way to break an application into POE entities is not to.  
> Decompose the application into entities and relationships that make 
> sense for the application.  Determine the requirements first, then 
> apply POE to fulfill them.

OK, to be specific, the heart of it is a proxy server, which seems to be 
fulfilled by using protocol X client wheel talking to protocol X server 
wheel?  The bits I guess I am most interested in are:

- How I might architect the POP server client to be one step removed 
from the socket and have the following pipeline attached to the 
socket:   data_in -> decompress -> parse input data into separate 
protocols and feed to correct wheel.  Is this another wheel, or done as 
a filter? (or something else?)

- Same for the output.  ie taking the output of multiple wheels, 
compressing the output and then blocking it into a simple protocol to 
multiplex over a single TCP connection (just data packet with a header 
on it)

- The main reason for looking at POE is that while it's mostly a 
pipeline, occasionally one distinct bit of the app needs to talk to 
another distinct bit, eg some remote end hangs up suddenly, the client 
end may not be expecting this as part of it's normal protocol and we 
need to wake it up and force it to terminate the other side of the 
proxy.  Any special features of POE which would be especially helpful here?

Thanks

Ed W