1 <html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"><title>2. Introduction</title><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.73.2"><link rel="start" href="index.html" title="YAZ User's Guide and Reference"><link rel="up" href="comstack.html" title="Chapter 11. The COMSTACK Module"><link rel="prev" href="comstack.html" title="Chapter 11. The COMSTACK Module"><link rel="next" href="comstack.common.html" title="3. Common Functions"></head><body><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="common/style1.css"><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">2. Introduction</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="comstack.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">Chapter 11. The COMSTACK Module</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="comstack.common.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr></div><div class="sect1" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a name="comstack.introduction"></a>2. Introduction</h2></div></div></div><p>
2 The <acronym class="acronym">COMSTACK</acronym>
3 subsystem provides a transparent interface to different types of transport
4 stacks for the exchange of BER-encoded data and HTTP packets.
5 At present, the RFC1729 method (BER over TCP/IP), local UNIX socket and an
6 experimental SSL stack are supported, but others may be added in time.
8 module is to provide a simple interface by hiding unused options and
9 facilities of the underlying libraries. This is always done at the risk
10 of losing generality, and it may prove that the interface will need
12 </p><div class="note" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;"><h3 class="title">Note</h3><p>
13 There hasn't been interest in the XTImOSI stack for some years.
14 Therefore, it is no longer supported.
16 The interface is implemented in such a fashion that only the
17 sub-layers constructed to the transport methods that you wish to
18 use in your application are linked in.
20 You will note that even though simplicity was a goal in the design,
21 the interface is still orders of magnitudes more complex than the
22 transport systems found in many other packages. One reason is that
23 the interface needs to support the somewhat different requirements of
24 the different lower-layer communications stacks; another important
25 reason is that the interface seeks to provide a more or less
26 industrial-strength approach to asynchronous event-handling.
27 When no function is allowed to block, things get more complex -
28 particularly on the server side.
29 We urge you to have a look at the demonstration client and server
30 provided with the package. They are meant to be easily readable and
31 instructive, while still being at least moderately useful.
32 </p></div><div class="navfooter"><hr><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="comstack.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="comstack.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="comstack.common.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">Chapter 11. The COMSTACK Module </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> 3. Common Functions</td></tr></table></div></body></html>