[Coco] OT: new territitory for me

[Wayne Campbell]

One of the things that I have not understood in the past, and am not sure I understand even now, is network communications. I've never actually tried to write a terminal, or bbs, or message-board, or a server or client of any kind before. I know how to parse text-based messages, which is what the internet is based on, and which irc is based on, but knowing how to handle the incoming and outgoing data streams has been elusive. In trying to do something with it, I am finding myself remembering another thing I have never really understood, event-driven programming, as opposed to procedural, which is what I am most familiar with.

I find myself looking at the streaming issue, and seeing where I need to be able to handle things in a similar manner to the event-driven style. Because I have to constantly read and process the incoming stream, while at the same time processing the messages being typed by the user. In addition, I have to manage the output so that each thing appears in the appropriate place on the screen, or is held in the right table for access as a sub-menu. I really don't understand how this is done, even though I did learn something about it when I had my old Mac Quadra 605. I do know that, if I don't do it right, the interface will be slow and kludgy.

Parsing character streams usig strings, and building message strings, is easy in comparison. I may have questions, as I go. Aaron Wolfe is a great help, and has already given me a few clues to build on. I am working on them now, to see if I can produce something that will communicate with a irc server.

Wayne