On Tue, 2 Nov 1999, Andu wrote:
> >Some comments on the Mac download:
> > 1) All the links are broken between the help index and the Metacard
> >reference substack.
> > 2) There is no mention of "New features" anywhere
> > 3) I see nothing about POP3/SMTP
> >
> >
>
> David, for you and anyone else interested in the sockets support now
> available in MC, I want to make a few points.
> Support for http, smtp, ftp, pop and whatever other protocols are there is
> NOT built in MC but the ability to open, listen, read, write and close a
> socket IS.
> That means that if anyone wants to write a client or server for any of the
> protocols mentioned above she/he must read and understand the particular
> RFC on that protocol first and then script step by step, by reading and
> writing from/to an open socket the whole conversation that takes place
> between the client and the server(in generic terms) in order to get or send
> some data.
Another option is stand on the shoulders of a scripting giant (like
Andu ;-) who's already done some of the basic ground work for you.
Then you don't have to understand all the steps, just identify the
spot where there's a problem or where an enhancement needs to be made.
> It will be very useful for most people once those libraries (Alan mentions
> in his post) are available but I strongly recommend to anyone interested in
> writing communications stacks to read the specific RFC to understand what's
> going on. Here's a link
> http://www.library.ucg.ie/Connected/Topics/index.htm to some RFC's.
I too recommend learning at least something about the protocols and
about how the Internet in general is put together. Most of the
protocols also have lots of obscure, seldom used options that may not
be supported in the sample implementations. The benefit of having
these things be scripted is that you can go in and implement these
features if you discover that you need them. And even if you never
get around to scripting any of them, this knowledge will undoubtedly
help you in the future when you get some bizarre error from a browser
or mail or ftp program. Understanding the basics of the protocol will
greatly improve the odds that you'll be able to fix or work around
something like that.
> I think at this time the only information on sockets syntax is in the
> ReadMe.
It's all in the MetaTalk Reference in beta 1.
Regards,
Scott
> Regards, Andu
>
>
********************************************************
Scott Raney [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.metacard.com
MetaCard: You know, there's an easier way to do that...
