From: Doug Jolley <ddjolley@...>
Date: 2010-06-19T05:01:03+09:00
Subject: Re: Socket Problems

> But the main problem is that socket.read will block until the other end 
> drops the connection. You probably want socket.gets instead.

Great suggestion.  The problem seems to be that the xml returned by the 
host (which is php based) is not terminated with a new line.  In fact, 
the returned xml contains no new lines at all.  Consequently, using gets 
produces the same result as using read.

I'm thinking that the reason I'm having problems using Ruby to interface 
via a socket to a PHP based host is that each of the socket 
implementations in these two languages has slightly different 
expectations about the protocol being used to transmit the data.  I'm 
not sure what the exact differences are.  As you say, it does definitely 
seem that I am hung waiting for something while the PHP implementation 
seems to somehow know when the host is through transmitting the data. 
This hypothesis is supported by the fact that if I use readpartial and 
set the number of bytes to some low value less than the length of the 
data expected to be returned, I get a snappy response with the expected 
bytes of data.  Also of interest is the fact that I can use telnet to 
interface to the PHP host and get a full response immediately.  So, 
apparently telnet also knows how to tell when the host is through 
transmitting data.

I'm kind of surprised that there isn't more chatter on this issue.  I 
would think that it would have been frequently encountered by many 
others before me.  I do know that it's a BIG problem for me and I really 
need to find a fix.

> Aside: port is usually an integer not a string (unless you're
> giving a service name from /etc/services)

My bad.  An integer obviously correct.

Thanks to all for the input.  If anyone has any further ideas, I'd sure 
like to hear them.

        ... doug


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