TCP support

[flowersinthesand]

TCP protocol also can be supported along with HTTP and WebSocket e.g. ServerTcpSocket like ServerHttpExchange. A network application written using this feature probably will be able to run seamlessly on Netty, Grizzly, Vert.x, MINA and so on. The following usages are expected.

• To implement TCP-based transport in Vibe protocol.
• To implement custom protocol on TCP.

And the following questions should be discussed.

• Vibe protocol now doesn't specify TCP-based transport but it's possible. Will it be worth it?
  • It will affect how Transport API should be designed.
• Is it possible to cover enough features of TCP to implement some protocol e.g. implementing HTTP2 based on this feature?
  • Because ServerHttpExchange doesn't support protocol upgrade, it's not possible to implement WebSocket protocol but it's possible to implement Vibe protocol. In most cases, when some feature is not supported, it's due to high-level application framework not supporting it. In this case, platforms to bridge are generally in low-level.
• Is it attractive to write some TCP application and run it on Netty, Grizzly, MINA and so on?
  • In writing high-level applications, it's not easy to reuse some module written in other high-level application e.g. porting Servlet application to Play. That's why, Vibe Java Platform is created and helps user to run Vibe application or something similar on any platform. Does the same advantage apply to this case?

[jfarcand]

+1 on the idea. I think for intra-net application some customers could be attrackted. Now what do you have in mind client side to interact with the server side?

[flowersinthesand]

I'd like to create lightweight platform for client side (maybe ClientHttpExchange and ClientWebSocket) like with server side for Vibe Java Client. I think, however, unlike with server, because client is generally used as standalone (easy to replace with other one), it's unlikely to be as attractive as server side. And AHC you wrote has already similar concept. Right? If you are interested, I'll open a new issue with more research.