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Writing a web server is the programmer

2015-03-17 15:20:04.064199+00 by Dan Lyke 4 comments

Writing a web server is the programmer equivalent of designing a chair, isn't it?

[ related topics: Software Engineering Writing Furniture ]

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment Re: Writing a web server is the programmer made: 2015-03-18 02:23:53.770147+00 by: Jack William Bell

But . . . But don't all great architects do furniture design too?

(Yeah, I'm currently writing my third web server. At least its for work and isn't a really a toy.)

#Comment Re: Writing a web server is the programmer made: 2015-03-18 23:10:17.941317+00 by: Dan Lyke

Certainly all starchitects do.

http://oree.storijapan.net/praxis/NCD-C/

In my defense, I had to write a server of some sort, figured HTTP was the reasonable protocol. And it would have taken longer to figure out someone else's package to do this than write my own.

But, like you, I've done a few of 'em by now.

#Comment Re: Writing a web server is the programmer made: 2015-03-19 02:20:54.3278+00 by: Jack William Bell [edit history]

I'm really wishing my boss would let me open source the HTTP server and underlying engine for my current project. (Not the whole package with the network independent sockets and the industry-specific stuff, just the HTTP and Engine bits.) It has some unusual features and a fairly cool dispatcher-based process model. Plus it is written in both Java (with Android support) and Python. A C version is planned as well.

I'm just about done with the initial implementation. In general I'm pretty happy with the design and implementation, although there is always room for improvement.

If it was open sourced I would probably write an adapter for the Java version to let it run in J2EE containers as well as with its native server. The Python version already has a WSGI adapter.

All that said, I think Web2Py is one of the best designs I've ever seen for an application server. I especially like the unapologetic SQL-centered design of the data layer.

#Comment Re: Writing a web server is the programmer made: 2015-03-22 12:16:59.159347+00 by: meuon

Jack may have given me a reason to try Python again. What I've done in the past was decent and useful, but I like the idea of "SQL-centered" whatever that really means.