Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!orchid!kgschlueter
From: kgschlueter@orchid.waterloo.edu (Kevin Schlueter)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: An alternative IPC system
Message-ID: <12388@orchid.waterloo.edu>
Date: 15 Apr 88 20:31:06 GMT
References: <2783@crash.cts.com> <12379@orchid.waterloo.edu> <1833@sugar.UUCP>
Reply-To: kgschlueter@orchid.waterloo.edu (Kevin Schlueter)
Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 32

But do we really have the primitives?  If you're thinking of using EXEC, how
are you going to extend it to work across multiple machines (yes, I know you
could patch it, however that's messy).  We should come up with a new set of
primitives to be used in communicating between foreign programs (ie IPC within
processes all belonging to a single program could still use EXEC) that will
make communications between processes on different machines completely 
transparent.  It is in that spirit that I suggested looking at the V-Kernel.
It is interesting to note that the V-kernel already deals with the issue
of broadcasting messages (ie 1 to many service), which I noticed someone
just raised.  

We shouldn't reinvent the wheel if we don't have to.  Let's make use of existing
distributed systems research if it is appropriate.

I really think that we need to define the primitives more than the protocols.
I really think that it's hopeless to try to define alot of protocols.  Let
the interested (and knowledgeable) groups get together to define specific
protocols, it's our job to give them something versatile and extensible
to do it with (this is alot like the philosophy behind IFF).

I think what we really need is this:

1.  Some way of identifying servers and the service they provide (ie nameserver
    or whatever).

2.  Some low level method of transferring data between client and server (ie
    our primitives).  This method must allow for client and server to be on
    different machines.

The V-kernel addresses these issues.  I don't have the pertinent paper with me
right now, but I believe it was in IEEE Software, April 1984.  We should all
read this paper.