Embedding proprietary protocols

Hello.

I am looking for a consistent way to use my client/server
toolkit (written in Java) with Jigsaw.
I need a persistent connection to my clients to handle incremental
data output and fast interactive GUI event handling
(e.g. chosing from a choice results in a server reaction;
requested data may come in, while the user already works on some
results; forcing results from the server (important for any-time
algorithms)).
At the moment I have a standalone version which is not convenient
in many cases (not to mention firewalls etc.).

I already checked out Servlets, but they don't satisfy my needs
and are probably to slow.

Another possibility would be to write my own Resource, which only would
return with a reply, when the whole client/server communication is over.
Working with Replys and instantiating my Resource multiple
times for the same connection would probably too slow or unwanted.
Using the Request.getClient() method, I could run my protocol
directly over the socket established by Jigsaw.

Isn't there a more general way ?

Since there are many client/server solutions written in Java out there,
which all have their own proprietary protocols
(be it Chat systems or something), I already thought about a way to
extend HTTP allowing arbitrary protocols on top of HTTP connections.
(for ex. a CONNECTION request method, which hands over the client connection
to a resource (what Jigsaw basically does))
I am sure, this is sick or probably nonsense, but who knows ?

Would anyone care to comment on this ?

Thanks,
  Jochen
--
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| beders@dfki.uni-sb.de  DFKI German Research Center for AI            |
| http://www.dfki.uni-sb.de/~beders                                    |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+

Received on Friday, 21 March 1997 11:20:46 UTC