[Zope-dev] Using Zope in a client-server system

Patrick Phalen zope@teleo.net
Fri, 3 Mar 2000 08:57:23 -0800


[Hung Jung Lu, on Fri, 03 Mar 2000]

:: But this problem seems to come up more and more often
:: nowadays. Web browsers, being pure clients, are not
:: good enough. What we want is some technology that implements
:: servers on the user's end. Mini-servers, if you wish.
:: Actually, I think this maybe a long term tendency: more
:: and more mini-servers would be running on end-users'
:: machines.

Yes. The flip side of syndication is aggregation. Giving users the
option of displaying just the granular, dynamically updatable
information which interests them will be a Portal killer. Obviously,
XML will be a major enabler of this. It's the return of Push Media, but
based on open standards.

:: That being said, it is actually not too hard to implement
:: mini-servers with Python. An HTTP server that analyzes
:: the URL (which might contain port number and form data,
:: like http://your.machine.com:8088/?x=3&y=4) and displays
:: a message box, probably would take about 30 to 40 lines
:: of Python code. It'll even make a beep sound if you want. :)
:: Quite a bargain. If you want to know more, I can say more,
:: but it kind of depend on your configuration.
:: 
:: Web browsers (HTTP clients) made a big impact on the
:: way how people use computers. I believe that nowadays
:: we also need some generic HTTP mini-servers so people
:: can respond to outside events, there is a real need for
:: this kind of products. The possibilities are endless.

Well, this is obviously way off topic for this list, but it's a
subject I find very compelling. Maybe those of us who are interested
in pursuing a Python strategy for this should migrate it to an egroup
or something?