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'Realtime' may have many definitions but those I'm familiar with relate to near instantaneous feedback based control systems. More generally it applies to syst
by mbell 14y ago
'Realtime' may have many definitions but those I'm familiar with relate to near instantaneous feedback based control systems. More generally it applies to systems with mandatory and very limited time constraints. A common high level software example would be algorithmic stock trading. A more historically proper 'realtime' system is code/hardware that put MSL rover on the ground on Mars. These are not things which twitter does. Their UI may give the impression of 'realtime', their systems however are not, nor do they even pretend to be realtime systems.
In short, you've taken a term and misappropriated it based on marketing hype. That is a reasonable thing to do when pitching to a bunch of consumers/marketing folks, it doesn't usually set all that well with engineers.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- volaski 14y agoLike you said, "realtime" has many definitions. And I disagree it's a misappropriated term based on marketing hype. Twitter IS realtime, just in a different context. If you stick to your strict definition, it would be incorrect to even call things like XMPP realtime.
- mbell 14y agoI have no idea how your bringing XMPP into this but just as Node, AMQP, ActiveMQ, ZeroMQ, Jetty, or <insert messaging or async tool here> they have have no singular impact on a system being realtime or not, they are just tools. If you want to consider a system which involves these tools and has a realtime constraint e.g. X arrives before Y time or we're seriously screwed, then sure, I'll happily concede and call the system, not the tool, realtime.