- Primitive socket support
- Protocol support
- Web authoring
- Other middleware
Introduction
In the sections below I will discuss various distributed computing resources. Since there are packages for all popular computing languages I have decided to concentrate on three: Java, Python and Smalltalk. The libraries found in these languages are representative of those you will find available for other languages although there are certainly exceptional languages specifically designed for distributed computing which will provide more resources. Since most of the discussions below will reference the documentation for these languages, the links to the root of these documents is here:Sockets "level" technology
Primitive socket support
Typically directly manipulating sockets is not the best choice for an developer since most languages have well-tested libraries to support well know protocols (often both the client and server side). However, most languages support a sockets API that is, or closely follows, the BSD sockets API. In C and C++ this API should be part of the standard libraries provided with your system (although on some platforms you need to link against libsocket.a).Language socket API's and support libraries include:
- Python's socket classes:
- The socket module
- Socket class (follow link from above)
- Async communication framework
- Java's socket classes:
- The Socket class
- The ServerSocket class
- Also has support for UDP sockets and multicasting (see the DataGram* classes).
Note that I have intentionally left out C and C++ since most sockets programmers have ample resources in these languages. See my Distributed Computing Workshop web pages for C and C++ resource links.
Protocol support
Many development environments include support for the client or server side of several protocols. Examples include(this is not a complete list):| Language | Package | Clients | Servers | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Java | Oro Inc's packages | ftp, nntp, smtp, pop3, telnet, tftp | ||
| Suns Servlet and JSP packages | http | |||
| Python | Standard library | http, ftp, gopher, pop, imap, nntp, smtp, telnet | http, ftp | data handling classes |
| Most Smalltalks | See image | http, smtp, ftp, (pop and imap from various sources) | http | Way cool Wiki's |
Middleware
I divide the middleware into two categories which are not altogether separate: Web Authoring and "Other".Web Authoring
Keep in mind, here, that the "language" refers more to the native language of the web authoring system, not the only language from which it can be used. For example, Java Server Pages can be part of a web application written in C.| Language | Active Documents | Servlet |
|---|---|---|
| Java | Java server pages -- link is to FAQ, docs must be downloaded | The java servlet architecture |
| Python | Zope | Zope |
| Apache python module | None | |
| Netscape API support | None | |
| Smalltalk | None known | Wiki server |
| None known | Pluggable web server |
Other middleware
| Language | Technology | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Java | RMI | Java native distributed object system |
| CORBA | You should know. | |
| Java enterprise bean servers | Object persistence and lifecycle management + application server | |
| Gemstone/J | Object database and application server | |
| Python | Fnorb | Python CORBA ORB |
| Smalltalk | Several CORBA implementations | See image |
| Gemstone/S | See Gemstone/J + many more years of Smalltalk software development |
| Page maintained by:
David Shaffer DavidShaffer@psu.edu Last modified: Wed May 3 16:12:05 EDT 2000 |  |