[Tutor] creating a server

[nathan tech]

Please ignore the last message.

There's a delay due to moderator approval (is that because I am new/) 
and the question has been answered :)


On 07/10/2020 20:09, dn via Tutor wrote:
> On 08/10/2020 07:29, Alan Gauld via Tutor wrote:
>> On 07/10/2020 19:13, nathan tech wrote:
>>> I certainly have and was going to base my code around it but was unsure
>>> if sockets could handle the passing of objects?
>>
>> sockets only care about bytes, they know nothing about data types.
>> That's up to you! You will need to choose a format to encode
>> your data in the message - JSON or YAML or XML or ASN.1 etc.
>> Then use a parser to pack/unpack the high level into and out
>> of the data stream.
>>
>> But your own suggested server was still using sockets and reading bytes.
>>
>> You had a recv(1024) call. That reads 1024 bytes. What would happen
>> if your "object" was 1500 bytes long? You'd only have part of it to 
>> process.
>
>
> One of the oldest and most popular (client-)servers on the Internet is 
> Apache's httpd. It implements the httpd protocol (yes, well...). The 
> client first sends a "header", and later a "body" payload. The header 
> 'declares' the business of the body, including its length - per 
> @Alan's comment.
>
> The early web and email servers used plain-text as their universal 
> communication medium (and very handy for debugging). In some respects 
> this can be inefficient, eg transmission volume, security. Many 
> 'modern' approaches try for a more 'binary' approach.
>
> Recommendation: design the protocol(s), ie the 'conversation' between 
> client and server, before worrying about the code (which will 
> implement same). Your server, your rules! (but what are "the rules"?)
>
> The code specified (earlier) is a classic "Event Loop". These days, 
> looking-up such key-words will likely land you in the world of 
> computer-games, but the techniques as you (originally) noted, still 
> apply.
>
>
> Adding to the study/reading @Alan recommended:
> - RFCs or similar, for Internet infrastructure servers.
> - YAML, JSON, etc, file formats and processing libraries.
> - more 'modern' protocols, eg MongoDB.
> - Python3's (default) use of Unicode characters, cf bytes, ASCII 
> characters, etc.