From: barmar@alum.mit.edu   
      
   In article ,   
    Jorgen Grahn  wrote:   
      
   > On Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:13:18 -0400, Barry Margolin    
   > wrote:   
   > > In article ,   
   > >  Jorgen Grahn  wrote:   
   > >   
   > >> And there are libraries for it, ready for use. Yes, if he *needs* a   
   > >> non-text encoding he should use something like that, not reinvent the   
   > >> wheel (and get it wrong).   
   > >   
   > > I get the impression that he doesn't need a solution, he's trying to   
   > > learn how this is done by doing it himself.   
   >   
   > He could (maybe *should*) use an XDR library, and still learn how to do   
   > RPC-like things. If I recall correctly, XDR can only encode primitive   
   > types, so it doesn't do much of the work for him.   
   >   
   > Regarding RPC versus text-based protocols: you seem to think his talk   
   > about passing arguments (i.e. mapping command-line arguments to the   
   > client into client->server commands) means he wants to play with some   
   > general RPC mechanism. You might be right, but I haven't seen him say   
   > so explicitly and ... well, asking the right questions is hard.   
   > That is why I'm butting in to this discussion.   
      
   Actually, I take it back.  His original post said:   
      
   > My production client, however, will run on Windows and I would like to   
   > base it on regular socket, widely available (no commercial or OSS)   
   > libraries.   
      
   So he's writing an application, and wants it to be portable between   
   OSes, so he wants to roll his own serialization code rather than rely on   
   a library that may not exist on both Unix and Windows.   
      
   I like the idea of a textual solution, like SMTP, perhaps using   
   URL-encoding (%) to deal with special characters in string   
   parameters.   
      
   --   
   Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu   
   Arlington, MA   
   *** PLEASE don't copy me on replies, I'll read them in the group ***   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)