[Pipet Users] Update

J.W. Bizzaro jeff at bioinformatics.org
Tue Feb 6 17:09:08 EST 2001


Nicolas Chauvat wrote:
> 
> > 1. Resource localisation (a central registration server that keeps
> > track of Piper instances)

> * are you sure you want to use a centralized approach for 1?

We (Jarl, Jean-Marc, Brad and I) discussed directory services a while back. 
Brad suggested that CORBA objects be registered through a single, CORBA-based
directory service, perhaps located at Bioinformatics.org.  But, since then, I
have been leaning toward having peer-to-peer directory services, meaning each
local instance of Piper would possess its own directory service, and that
would register local nodes PLUS the nodes of whatever other remote Piper
instance it is connected to (a la Gnutella).

Since there are so many P2P systems out there, we probably don't need to
invent anything of our own when it comes to directory services.  But I don't
know if a CORBA-based directory service is still on the slate.

> > 6. Resouce management (like ram, HD space, ea)

> * I'm still not clear what 6 is.

I think Jarl is talking about providing resource information with each node. 
IOW, Piper would let a remote user know what your resources are (esp. network
speed).  This would be helpful if your node(s) is not the only one on the
Net.  Take Napster, for example.  You may find 10 mp3's that are exactly the
same, but you would prefer to download from the guy with a T3 over someone
with a 28.8 modem.

> Depending on what you actually need, you may get away with something like
> RPC-over-something-else. Ever thought of SOAP maybe? Narval is using the
> python implementation by pythonware.com. Slow, but standard.

I know little about SOAP, but I know that CORBA is pretty much in the same
class.  To what extent can we make use of CORBA over KQML (or SOAP or
XML-RPC)?

Also, how about using only the parts of KQML that we like or need?  There
probably isn't much use in sticking to a standard that doesn't exist ;-)

Cheers.
Jeff
-- 
J.W. Bizzaro                                           jeff at bioinformatics.org
Director, Bioinformatics.org: The Open Lab     http://bioinformatics.org/~jeff
"All those scientists--they're all alike!  They say they're working for us,
but what they really want is to rule the world!" 
  -- Angry Villager, Young Frankenstein
--




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