vancouver ruby on rails conference

[Giles Bowkett]

So I went to Canada on Rails last week, which was the first ever Ruby
on Rails conference. I actually think the second ever is going to be a
lot better, but tickets for that have been sold out for ages. Anyway,
I'm going to do a whole writeup thing at some point, but I did want to
post about one thing: they figured out a clever hack which effectively
makes it possible to do push on the browser, instead of pull.

That's the big limitation with Ajax -- the browser has to pull from
the server, the server can't just push to the browser, because HTTP
connections are stateless and non-persistent. What the Rails guys did
is they created a 1K Flash file which does nothing except open a
socket to the server and keep that socket open. Then it uses the
Flash-JavaScript bridge to send any data it receives into whatever
Ajax handlers you might care to write for that data. So if you want
constant real-time updates, you don't have to do what Gmail does, poll
the server for data every three seconds or whatever and then download
anything it has available. You just open a persistent connection in
Flash and eliminate huge bandwidth overhead. The bandwidth only gets
used when there's something to send across it.

This means Ajax techniques that were impractical for any company with
less bandwidth and server resources than Google -- which basically
means every company on the planet except Google -- are now practical
and efficient for everybody. And the really cool thing is it's just
like pretty much everything else in Rails, it's a Post-It innovation
-- not a really arcane thing which nobody else can figure out, but a
really simple, intelligent thing which anybody could have done, and
the minute you discover it, you wonder how you lived without it, and
why it took so long for somebody to figure it out in the first place.

--
Giles Bowkett
http://www.gilesgoatboy.org

[Colm Toolan]

Here's another example of real-time push using Ajax:
http://www.lightstreamer.com/ 

Colm Toolan, Business Architect
Germany

I'm LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/e/fpf/126026

-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf
Of Giles Bowkett
Sent: 18 April 2006 18:57
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Subject: [FRIAM] vancouver ruby on rails conference

So I went to Canada on Rails last week, which was the first ever Ruby
on Rails conference. I actually think the second ever is going to be a
lot better, but tickets for that have been sold out for ages. Anyway,
I'm going to do a whole writeup thing at some point, but I did want to
post about one thing: they figured out a clever hack which effectively
makes it possible to do push on the browser, instead of pull.

That's the big limitation with Ajax -- the browser has to pull from
the server, the server can't just push to the browser, because HTTP
connections are stateless and non-persistent. What the Rails guys did
is they created a 1K Flash file which does nothing except open a
socket to the server and keep that socket open. Then it uses the
Flash-JavaScript bridge to send any data it receives into whatever
Ajax handlers you might care to write for that data. So if you want
constant real-time updates, you don't have to do what Gmail does, poll
the server for data every three seconds or whatever and then download
anything it has available. You just open a persistent connection in
Flash and eliminate huge bandwidth overhead. The bandwidth only gets
used when there's something to send across it.

This means Ajax techniques that were impractical for any company with
less bandwidth and server resources than Google -- which basically
means every company on the planet except Google -- are now practical
and efficient for everybody. And the really cool thing is it's just
like pretty much everything else in Rails, it's a Post-It innovation
-- not a really arcane thing which nobody else can figure out, but a
really simple, intelligent thing which anybody could have done, and
the minute you discover it, you wonder how you lived without it, and
why it took so long for somebody to figure it out in the first place.

--
Giles Bowkett
http://www.gilesgoatboy.org

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

[Stephen Guerin]

Just van de Broecke has been demonstrating what he calls "pushlets" since
about 1998. Is it any different?
http://www.pushlets.com/

-Steve

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Colm Toolan [mailto:subscriptions at toolan.de]
> Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2006 3:40 AM
> To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group'
> Subject: [FRIAM] Real-Time Push ::: RE: vancouver ruby on
> rails conference
>
> Here's another example of real-time push using Ajax:
> http://www.lightstreamer.com/ 
>
> Colm Toolan, Business Architect
> Germany
>
> I'm LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/e/fpf/126026
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Friam-bounces at redfish.com
> [mailto:Friam-bounces at redfish.com] On Behalf Of Giles Bowkett
> Sent: 18 April 2006 18:57
> To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
> Subject: [FRIAM] vancouver ruby on rails conference
>
> So I went to Canada on Rails last week, which was the first
> ever Ruby on Rails conference. I actually think the second
> ever is going to be a lot better, but tickets for that have
> been sold out for ages. Anyway, I'm going to do a whole
> writeup thing at some point, but I did want to post about one
> thing: they figured out a clever hack which effectively makes
> it possible to do push on the browser, instead of pull.
>
> That's the big limitation with Ajax -- the browser has to
> pull from the server, the server can't just push to the
> browser, because HTTP connections are stateless and
> non-persistent. What the Rails guys did is they created a 1K
> Flash file which does nothing except open a socket to the
> server and keep that socket open. Then it uses the
> Flash-JavaScript bridge to send any data it receives into
> whatever Ajax handlers you might care to write for that data.
> So if you want constant real-time updates, you don't have to
> do what Gmail does, poll the server for data every three
> seconds or whatever and then download anything it has
> available. You just open a persistent connection in Flash and
> eliminate huge bandwidth overhead. The bandwidth only gets
> used when there's something to send across it.
>
> This means Ajax techniques that were impractical for any
> company with less bandwidth and server resources than Google
> -- which basically means every company on the planet except
> Google -- are now practical and efficient for everybody. And
> the really cool thing is it's just like pretty much
> everything else in Rails, it's a Post-It innovation
> -- not a really arcane thing which nobody else can figure
> out, but a really simple, intelligent thing which anybody
> could have done, and the minute you discover it, you wonder
> how you lived without it, and why it took so long for
> somebody to figure it out in the first place.
>
> --
> Giles Bowkett
> http://www.gilesgoatboy.org
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
>
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
>
>