Another possible solution shapj@us.ibm.com
Sun, 10 Jan 1999 14:46:57 -0500

Actually, you could elect to have the worst of both worlds by running the location server as a Java "Servlet". If the protocol can be reduced to things that can be done in an RPC-style interface, then it can be piggybacked on top of HTTP and wired up into a servlet that runs on demand in the http server.

Most of the major web servers, including apache, are now servlet enabled.

I suggest it only because it might minimize the amount of code you need to hack...

shap

Bill Frantz <frantz@communities.com> on 01/07/99 02:19:57 PM

To: e-lang@eros.cis.upenn.edu
cc: (bcc: Jonathan S Shapiro/Watson/IBM) Subject: Vat Location Service

MarkM asked me over dinner last night where we could bring up a Vat Location Service (VLS). The basic requirements are a 24/7 Internet connected machine capable of running a Java virtual machine.

Well, on the way home, my wife Peri mentioned the magic word, HTTP. It occurs to me that if we implemented a HTTP/CGI based VLS, then we could put up a VLS on any ISP that supported user CGIs. Doing this would require some changes in DataComm to recognize a URL for the search path and run the VLS under HTTP protocol, but I think that is quite doable.

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