From: Joel VanderWerf <vjoel@...>
Date: 2004-10-26T10:17:40+09:00
Subject: Re: Server Programming

Andy Stone wrote:
> Hello Francis,
> 
> Thanks for the reply.  
> 
> This isn't a web server, just a JAVA client/server application that
> starts a few threads that have their own individual responsibilities. 
> The server app is merely a container for these threads to allow the
> basic functions like startup,shutdown,and status to be handled
> cleanly.

Note that ruby threads are in-process threads, so if you're using 
threads to take advantage of multiple cpus, you may want to have several 
ruby processes on the server side, and distribute tasks among them.

Also, take a loook at DRb--distributed ruby. It's a remote method call 
protocol for ruby objects and a very elegant way of developing servers, 
though it doesn't come without some performance costs. A good starting 
place is the pickaxe book (get it online at 
http://www.rubycentral.com/book/index.html or buy the new edition).

DRb even has a Linda/tuplespace implementation, called Rinda. All 
included with ruby in the standard lib.