From: "Jon A. Lambert" <jlsysinc@...>
Date: 2006-05-06T13:13:11+09:00
Subject: Re: Considering Ruby For a Networking Application

James Edward Gray II wrote:
>
> However, I think I remember someone saying Ruby 1.8.4 is better with
> nonblocking sockets.  So, can some networking guru take a stab at
> these questions:

I haven't noticed any difference between 1.8.3 and 1.8.4.

> 1.  I need to use threads *and* nonblocking sockets to be safe, right?

No.  The whole point of select() and non-blocking sockets is to de-multiplex 
I/O.

> 2.  Can I use gets() and puts() now in Ruby 1.8.4 or do I still need
> to do low level reads and writes?

I would guess these would be "unsafe" as would any network I/O function that 
depends on specific separators.   Would gets() effectively block on a 
non-blocking socket if the EOL separator never arrives?
*shrug* I don't know.

> 3.  Do I need to rescue Errno::EWOULDBLOCK?

Yes.

> 4.  This isn't going to work on Windows, right?  (That's okay in this
> case.  Just making sure.)

Sure it work on Windows.

Here's a pretty good example.  No threads.  Single select client/server code 
that uses non-blocking sockets.

http://sourcery.dyndns.org/svn/teensymud/release/tmud-2.9.0/lib/network/

--
J. Lambert