5 ms·
So could you say that the Raft spec is an opinionated implementation of Paxos?
by infogulch 6y ago
So could you say that the Raft spec is an opinionated implementation of Paxos?
- rubiquity 6y agoSome people don’t like it when you say that, but yes. I don’t mean to downplay Raft’s significance because its better perceived understandability helped bring a good algorithm to much more popularity, maybe even nudged future researchers to think about the “user experience” of their discoveries (not to say that Leslie Lamport wasn’t, he did try very hard with metaphors in The Part-time Parliament).
- jasonwatkinspdx 6y agoYes. Raft is in the basic category called Multi-Paxos, but with specific choices intended to make the algorithm more comprehensible and less error prone to implement. Looks like there's substance to that view as well, looking at both the literature and practice. A more recent development is Heidi Howard's work, which provides a framework for thinking about the whole category of Paxos algorithms that many of us find a lot more approachable.
- poooogles 6y ago>A more recent development is Heidi Howard's work Glad someone has mentioned her here. This talk helped me greatly https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTHOwgpMIiU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTHOwgpMIiU.
- cmckn 6y agoSeconded, her videos and papers are fantastic. Previous discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22994420 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22994420