Re: SACRED Protocol (long!)

At 11:50 AM 12/7/2001 -0500, Magnus Nystrom wrote:
>SACRED in the form proposed this week by me is quite self-sufficient
>and puts very few requirements on the protocol it runs on top of.

Magnus,

This is the core of your error.  You want Sacred to do too much work.

An essential part of making a successful protocol standard is to have it do 
no more than is essential.  That is the entire reason for layering.

Hence, define a protocol that does only the new part that you need 
done.  Then define a functional interface below that protocol, thereby 
specifying all the "infrastructure" services you need from the layer(s) 
below.  The new protocol is the client of that interface.

Then map one or more lower layers -- as providers -- to supply the required 
services.

As a matter of well-engineered convenience, BEEP supplies a very useful 
functional interface to client applications.

So the way to do what YOU want is not to have Sacred do all sorts of 
required, supporting tasks.  It is to create a protocol that uses the beep 
interface.

That, of course, means it will run over beep.

If you wish to make your new application run over OTHER infrastructure 
services, you merely need to assemble those services into a package that 
satisfies the beep services.

d/

ps.  If you can specify Sacred requirements for an infrastructure package 
of services that is different from beep, please do so and then get support 
for it.


----------
Dave Crocker  <mailto:[email protected]>
Brandenburg InternetWorking  <http://www.brandenburg.com>
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