5 ms·

I'm pretty sure any evented framework in any language can do the same thing.

dmmalam 15y ago
Ye, 100% true. I've spent many man-years writing entire systems like this in C and Java. It's just in node, doing it in the evented way was actually simpler and quicker to implement, than the 'ghetto' way. This isn't usually the case, and I always recommend doing the simplest thing that works first. It's just nice here that the simplest thing is also a tight solution.
- eaurouge 15y ago
  And what exactly does 'ghetto' mean here? You've used the same term in your blog post.
  - dmmalam 15y ago
    We use it to mean, the quick and dirty simple solution that we write first, and that is usually good enough but your a little embarrassed to admit. It's not the elegant or crafted, but works. Our original solution was literally a shell exec, and it was perfectly fine (..for a while)
    - rhizome 15y ago
      Given your definition, I'd probably try to use a different word.
      - mcantelon 15y ago
        Lots of people use "ghetto" to mean quick-and-dirty.
        eaurouge 15y ago
        That's not an argument for it's continued use. I agree with rhizome, you should consider using a different word or phrase.
masklinn 15y ago
Even non-evented ones, the interesting part really is not node itself (despite what the blog says) but the ability to pipeline streams without having to touch every byte yourself. It should be possible to do something similar using e.g. generators (in Python) or lazy enumerators (in Ruby) In fact, in Python's WSGI handlers return an arbitrary iterable which will be consumed, so that pattern is natively supported (string iterators and generators together, then return the complete pipe which will perform the actual processing as WSGI serializes and sends the response). Ruby would require an adapter to a Rack response of some sort as I don't think you can reply an enumerable OOTB.
- timc3 15y ago
  It's possible in Python generators but in my tests the performance sucks particularly if the client can't receive fast enough. Using eventlet or gevent was much kinder to the system.
robfig 15y ago
What is the connection between evented and streaming? It seems like a thread-per-request server would have to do exactly the same thing (except, they would not have to worry about giving back their event loop thread).
- mcantelon 15y ago
  Evented streaming doesn't tie up a process waiting for specific data to come in. During the times that the process is waiting other things can get done (other streams processed, etc.).
mcantelon 15y ago
With Node it's brain-dead easy and requires less code. i.e. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3753019 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3753019

Ye, 100% true. I've spent many man-years writing entire systems like this in C and Java. It's just in node, doing it in the evented way was actually simpler and quicker to implement, than the 'ghetto' way. This isn't usually the case, and I always recommend doing the simplest thing that works first. It's just nice here that the simplest thing is also a tight solution.

eaurouge 15y ago
And what exactly does 'ghetto' mean here? You've used the same term in your blog post.
- dmmalam 15y ago
  We use it to mean, the quick and dirty simple solution that we write first, and that is usually good enough but your a little embarrassed to admit. It's not the elegant or crafted, but works. Our original solution was literally a shell exec, and it was perfectly fine (..for a while)
  - rhizome 15y ago
    Given your definition, I'd probably try to use a different word.
    - mcantelon 15y ago
      Lots of people use "ghetto" to mean quick-and-dirty.
      - eaurouge 15y ago
        That's not an argument for it's continued use. I agree with rhizome, you should consider using a different word or phrase.

masklinn 15y ago

Even non-evented ones, the interesting part really is not node itself (despite what the blog says) but the ability to pipeline streams without having to touch every byte yourself. It should be possible to do something similar using e.g. generators (in Python) or lazy enumerators (in Ruby) In fact, in Python's WSGI handlers return an arbitrary iterable which will be consumed, so that pattern is natively supported (string iterators and generators together, then return the complete pipe which will perform the actual processing as WSGI serializes and sends the response). Ruby would require an adapter to a Rack response of some sort as I don't think you can reply an enumerable OOTB.

timc3 15y ago
It's possible in Python generators but in my tests the performance sucks particularly if the client can't receive fast enough. Using eventlet or gevent was much kinder to the system.

robfig 15y ago

What is the connection between evented and streaming? It seems like a thread-per-request server would have to do exactly the same thing (except, they would not have to worry about giving back their event loop thread).

mcantelon 15y ago
Evented streaming doesn't tie up a process waiting for specific data to come in. During the times that the process is waiting other things can get done (other streams processed, etc.).

mcantelon 15y ago

With Node it's brain-dead easy and requires less code. i.e. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3753019 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3753019