Understanding the Digital Economy or C Network Programming Volume I

Understanding the Digital Economy: Data, Tools, and Research

Author: Erik Brynjolfsson

The rapid growth of electronic commerce, along with changes in information, computing, and communications, is having a profound effect on the United States economy. President Clinton recently directed the National Economic Council, in consultation with executive branch agencies, to analyze the economic implications of the Internet and electronic commerce domestically and internationally, and to consider new types of data collection and research that could be undertaken by public and private organizations.

This book contains work presented at a conference held by executive branch agencies in May 1999 at the Department of Commerce. The goals of the conference were to assess current research on the digital economy, to engage the private sector in developing the research that informs investment and policy decisions, and to promote better understanding of the growth and socioeconomic implications of information technology and electronic commerce. Aspects of the digital economy addressed include macroeconomic assessment, organizational change, small business, access, market structure and competition, and employment and the workforce.

New interesting textbook: The Boys Beer Book or Seasonal Country Kitchen

C++ Network Programming, Volume I: Mastering Complexity with ACE and Patterns

Author: Douglas C Schmidt

As networks, devices, and systems continue to evolve, software engineers face the unique challenge of creating reliable distributed applications within frequently changing environments. C++ Network Programming, Volume 1, provides practical solutions for developing and optimizing complex distributed systems using the ADAPTIVE Communication Environment (ACE), a revolutionary open-source framework that runs on dozens of hardware platforms and operating systems.

This book guides software professionals through the traps and pitfalls of developing efficient, portable, and flexible networked applications. It explores the inherent design complexities of concurrent networked applications and the tradeoffs that must be considered when working to master them.

C++ Network Programming begins with an overview of the issues and tools involved in writing distributed concurrent applications. The book then provides the essential design dimensions, patterns, and principles needed to develop flexible and efficient concurrent networked applications. The book's expert author team shows you how to enhance design skills while applying C++ and patterns effectively to develop object-oriented networked applications.

Readers will find coverage of:

• C++ network programming, including an overview and strategies for addressing common development challenges The ACE Toolkit
• Connection protocols, message exchange, and message-passing versus shared memory
• Implementation methods for reusable networked application services
• Concurrency in object-oriented network programming
• Design principles and patterns for ACE wrapfacades

With this book, C++ developers have at their disposal the most complete toolkit available for developing successful, multiplatform, concurrent networked applications with ease and efficiency.

Booknews

Explains how to use the adaptive communication environment (ACE) to develop networked applications. The authors, one of whom created ACE, review the core native OS mechanisms available on popular OS platforms, and illustrate how C++ and patterns are applied in ACE to encapsulate these mechanisms in class library wrapper facades that improve application portability and robustness. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Table of Contents:

(NOTE: All chapters end with a Summary.)
About This Book.
Design Challenges, Middleware Solutions, and ACE.
Challenges of Networked Applications.
Networked Application Design Dimensions.
Object-Oriented Middleware Solutions.
An Overview of the ACE Toolkit.
Example Application: A Networked Logging Service.

I. OBJECT-ORIENTED NETWORK PROGRAMMING.

1. Communication Design Dimensions.
Connectionless versus Connection-oriented Protocols.
Synchronous versus Asynchronous Message Exchange.
Message Passing versus Shared Memory.

2. An Overview of the Socket API.
An Overview of Operating System IPC Mechanisms.
The Socket API.
Limitations of the Socket API.

3. The ACE Socket Wrapper Facades.
Overview.
The ACE Addr and ACE INET Addr Classes.
The ACE IPC SAP Class.
The ACE SOCK Class.
The ACE SOCK Connector Class.
The ACE SOCK Stream and ACE SOCK IO Classes..
The ACE SOCK Acceptor Class.

4. Implementing the Networked Logging Service.
Overview.
The ACE Message Block Class.
The ACE InputCDR and ACE OutputCDR Classes.
The Initial Logging Server.
The Client Application.

II. CONCURRENT OBJECT-ORIENTED NETWORK PROGRAMMING.

5.Concurrency Design Dimensions.
Iterative, Concurrent, and Reactive Servers.
Processes versus Threads.
Process/Thread Spawning Strategies.
User, Kernel, and Hybrid Threading Models.
Time-shared and Real-time Scheduling Classes.
Task- vs. Message-based Architectures.

6. An Overview of Operating System Concurrency Mechanisms.
Synchronous Event Demultiplexing.
MultiProcessing Mechanisms.
MultiThreading Mechanisms.
Synchronization Mechanisms.
Limitations with OS Concurrency Mechanisms.

7. The ACE Synchronous Event Demultiplexing Wrapper Facades.
Overview.
The ACE Handle Set Class.
The ACE Handle Set Iterator Class.
The ACE::select() Methods.

8. The ACE Process Wrapper Facades.
Overview.
The ACE Process Class.
The ACE Process Options Class.
The ACE Process Manager Class.

9. The ACE Threading Wrapper Facades.
Overview.
The ACE Thread Manager Class.
The ACE Sched Params Class.
The ACE TSS Class.

10. The ACE Synchronization Wrapper Facades.
Overview.
The ACE Guard Classes.
The ACE Mutex Classes.
The ACE Readers/Writer Lock Classes.
The ACE Semaphore Classes.
The ACE Condition Variable Classes.

A Design Principles for ACE C++ Wrapper Facades.
Overview.
Use Wrapper Facades to Enhance Type Safety.
Simplify for the Common Case.
Use Hierarchies to Enhance Design Clarity and Extensibility.
Hide Platform Differences Whenever Possible.
Optimize for Efficiency.

B The Past, Present, and Future of ACE.
The Evolution of ACE.
The Road Ahead.
Concluding Remarks.

Glossary.
Index.