Short: AmiTCP data broadcast library & server
Author: jfriesne@ucsd.edu (Jeremy Friesner)
Uploader: jfriesne@ucsd.edu (Jeremy Friesner)
Version: 1.30B
Type: comm/net
Replaces: comm/net/AMarquee1.20B.lha
Requires: Workbench 2.04+, AmiTCP3.0b+
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AMARQUEE V1.30B
(Released 2/9/97)
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The Problem:
You have a great idea for a killer multi-player Internet game
or multi-user net app, but it's a total pain in the @)#$* to
write all the TCP connection and data synchronization code
you'll need to get it going. So you put your idea on the
back-burner and go play "MineSweeper" instead. And thus the
Amiga is deprived of a fun Internet app. D-oh! :(
The Solution: (well, okay, it's *a* solution, anyway)
Enter AMarquee. AMarquee is a system that handles all of
the icky information distribution details for you, allowing
you to concentrate on coding your application, rather than on
which data goes into which socket when. AMarquee consists of
a shared library and a TCP daemon, which work together to
get your data where it needs to be. Your program simply
calls amarquee.library functions to broadcast the data,
and waits on a provided MsgPort for data from other hosts.
Easy!
Features of amarquee.library (the shared library/API):
- Works with AmiTCP (and likely with any stack that is "AmiTCP compatible")
- Simple API that requires no knowledge of socket programming to use.
- Each AMarquee connection you make automatically and transparently
starts a seperate execution thread, so your app will never
be forced to wait while data is sent or received.
- An arbitrary number of connections may be active at once.
- Allows you to "subscribe" to data that interests you, so that
when the data is changed you will be automatically notified.
You never need to poll for anything!
- An easy mechanism for sending messages to one or many other
AMarquee clients that are logged into the same server.
- Standard Amiga wildcarding is supported in all applicable functions.
This allows you to easily and succinctly refer to one host or data
item, or many, as appropriate.
- Includes and several small example applications included.
- Operation is almost totally asynchronous for efficiency, but
several easy synchronization methods are available if you need them.
- Can also be used for direct client-to-client connections and
for making inetd daemons.
Features of amarqueed (the AmiTCP server):
- Works with AmiTCP (and any other stack that is "AmiTCP compatible")
- Fully multithreaded design, with one server process per connection.
- Re-entrant code, to minimize memory usage.
- Data is stored in a filesystem-like tree structure for simplicity,
flexibility and efficiency. Each client gets its own "home directory"
that it may write to or read from, and each may client may also
read from the "home directories" of other clients.
- Efficient design minimizes CPU usage, net bandwidth, and execution time.
- Limits may be put on memory usage, number of connections, and/or
which clients or apps may connect. Only serve the hosts and apps
you want to serve!
- Supports data streaming to one or many clients at once.
- Data streaming and synchronization features let you be sure your
data was read by all interested hosts before you update it again.
- Automatically detects and eliminates "dead" connections (e.g.
if the client computer was shut down suddenly)
WHAT'S NEW IN VERSION 1.30B:
- Both AMarqueed and amarquee.library flush their TCP output buffer
after each transaction group has finished being queued. This causes
the packets to be sent sooner, allowing for faster response times.
- Added code to SillyGame that syncs with the AMarquee server on
exit, so that the player's marker will disappear from the other
clients' SillyGame windows when he exits.
- Changed the behavior of QSessions created by QNewHostSession.
Now transactions sent to them while they are still unconnected
will cause QERROR_NO_CONNECTION QMessages to be returned.
- Changed QNewHostSession() to allow automatic port selection by
the TCP stack.
- The Installer script now supports Miami. (Thanks to Fredrik
Rambris for providing this)
- Added an example section to all the man pages in the docs.
* Rewrote the client TCP thread shutdown code to be synchronous.
Before, the library sent a signal to cause the TCP thread to quit,
and this could cause the last transaction to be dropped. I think
this was the bug that was causing SillyGame to crash occasionally.
The Fine Print:
This is the third beta release of this software. While I have tested
AMarquee extensively on my computer and designed it to be as robust as
possible, there are likely still some bugs in AMarquee. Run AMarquee
at your own risk! If AMarquee crashes or exhibits any other erronous
behavior, please let me know what happened and how to reproduce the
error, so that I can fix it. Thanks!
-Jeremy
============================= Archive contents =============================
Original Packed Ratio Date Time Name
-------- ------- ----- --------- -------- -------------
1233 595 51.7% 09-Feb-97 18:09:32 AMarquee.info
83664 25918 69.0% 09-Feb-97 18:09:32 +amarquee.guide
1542 1096 28.9% 09-Feb-97 18:09:32 +AMarquee.guide.info
15728 8588 45.3% 09-Feb-97 18:09:32 +amarquee.library
5241 2420 53.8% 09-Feb-97 18:09:32 +AMarquee.readme
835 268 67.9% 09-Feb-97 18:09:32 +AMarquee.readme.info
34132 18486 45.8% 09-Feb-97 18:09:32 +AMarqueed
4123 1604 61.0% 09-Feb-97 18:09:34 +EditTextFile.rexx
10444 6049 42.0% 09-Feb-97 18:09:34 +AMarqueeDebug
5779 1979 65.7% 09-Feb-97 18:09:34 +amarqueedebug.c
9200 5494 40.2% 09-Feb-97 18:09:36 +AMarqueeHost
4175 1563 62.5% 09-Feb-97 18:09:36 +amarqueehost.c
11868 6922 41.6% 09-Feb-97 18:09:36 +AMarqueeServer
5307 1924 63.7% 09-Feb-97 18:09:34 +AMarqueeServer.c
7400 4731 36.0% 09-Feb-97 18:09:34 +BounceCount
2910 1167 59.8% 09-Feb-97 18:09:36 +BounceCount.c
247 172 30.3% 09-Feb-97 18:09:36 +dmakefile
10408 6410 38.4% 09-Feb-97 18:09:36 +MiniIRC
6379 2171 65.9% 09-Feb-97 18:09:38 +MiniIRC.c
6984 4444 36.3% 09-Feb-97 18:09:34 +RemoveTest
2546 1035 59.3% 09-Feb-97 18:09:36 +RemoveTest.c
9324 5734 38.5% 09-Feb-97 18:09:36 +SillyGame
8214 2586 68.5% 09-Feb-97 18:09:38 +SillyGame.c
7404 4711 36.3% 09-Feb-97 18:09:36 +StreamCheck
3132 1242 60.3% 09-Feb-97 18:09:36 +StreamCheck.c
7216 4569 36.6% 09-Feb-97 18:09:36 +StreamGen
2422 1018 57.9% 09-Feb-97 18:09:36 +streamgen.c
7456 4717 36.7% 09-Feb-97 18:09:34 +SyncTest
3250 1302 59.9% 09-Feb-97 18:09:38 +SyncTest.c
2033 570 71.9% 09-Feb-97 18:09:38 +AMarquee_protos.h
765 298 61.0% 09-Feb-97 18:09:40 +amarquee.fd
2470 1091 55.8% 09-Feb-97 18:09:38 +AMarquee.h
1183 379 67.9% 09-Feb-97 18:09:38 +AMarquee_pragmas.h
12801 4027 68.5% 09-Feb-97 18:09:34 +Install_AMarquee
612 329 46.2% 09-Feb-97 18:09:34 +Install_AMarquee.info
-------- ------- ----- --------- --------
298427 135609 54.5% 11-Feb-97 13:30:54 35 files