Javascript within Exodus

[Ashley Chapman]

Some "blue skies" thinking for your consideration.  Shoot it down in flames if it's a stupid idea!

I've got a need to build a scalable and high load web application that needed frequent screen updates.  It's basically a price ticker for currencies, which might have thousands of users at a time, so the usual AJAX long-polling puts a large load on the server.  Currently, I'm evaluating the use of HTML5 Websockets and node.js as a webserver (cutting out Apache).  I then link this into my MV database (ScarletDME) through a XML equivalent to SQL, which is a horrible kludge.  So far, it appears to have a MUCH lower loading and is very responsive.  Also, it's pretty easy to setup, and has needed a surprisingly small amount of code.  always a good thing! :-)

This is relevant to Exodus because node.js is an opensource C++ JS I/O engine that is released under a MIT/BSD licence.  If it's possible to link it into Exodus, then it would give Exodus websocket capabilities and hence could be used for cutting-edge web applications. 

After all, any modern application development for web browsers needs some level of JS skills.  This simply takes it a few steps further.  It might even be possible to write an entire application in JS, which would make it easy to hire staff with the right skills.

Some links:-
Node.js home page
Blog writing about websocket server

Hope I've not wasted your time.


Ashley Chapman

[Steve Bush]

Strategically I believe you are right on the main line here. I strongly suspect that javascript will slowly, maybe over 5-10 years, eventually come to dominate on the server as it does on the client. Java, C# and, to a slightly lesser extent, php, all have some fundamental weakness. Java/Oracle are pigs, C# is superb but tied to ms/windows despite mono, php is a rats nest of idiosyncratic backward compatibility. The only fly in the ointment is whether heavyweight proprietary application IP can be protected sufficiently in a scripting environment e.g. by obfuscators - I am thinking of my own situation here.

There are other ways to give exodus a web interface but I'll have a look at this in the new year.

My dream would be a javascript with operator overloading so allowing classic pick programming. ie "2"+"2" eq 4 not "22".

btw I think ajax can be made interrupt driven ... by the server never indicating that the ajax connection is complete. Interrupt driven requires potentially far fewer transfers and and server cpu cycles. The trade-off is memory - to keep the thousands of connections open.

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