Re: hangs/multiple servers

"Tony Johnson (415) 926 2278" <TONYJ@scs.slac.stanford.edu>

Mail folder: WWW Talk 1992 Archives
Next message: Marc Andreessen: "html-mode.el update"
Previous message: Rik Harris: "Re: hangs/multiple servers "

Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 18:51 PDT
From: "Tony Johnson (415) 926 2278" <TONYJ@scs.slac.stanford.edu>
Subject: Re: hangs/multiple servers
To: marca@ncsa.uiuc.edu
Cc: www-talk@nxoc01.cern.ch
Message-id: <FAE954AE90203760@SCS.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU>
X-Envelope-To: www-talk@nxoc01.CERN.CH
X-Vms-To: IN%"marca@ncsa.uiuc.edu"
X-Vms-Cc: TONYJ, in%"www-talk@nxoc01.CERN.CH"

>I've noticed occasionally that trying to contact an http server that
>seems to be down (at least with ViolaWWW & MidasWWW) will result in
>hangs (or very very long pauses).  Shouldn't a 30-second timeout or
>something similar be in effect at all times?

The way I would like MidasWWW to work is that it would try to connect for about 
2 seconds, after which a dialog box would pop up looking something like:

                  ------------------------------------
                  |    Connecting to XXX.XXX.XXX...  |
                  |                                  |
                  |            -----------           | 
                  |            | Abort!  |           |
                  ------------------------------------

Where you click on abort if you get tired of waiting.

Only problem is that I don't know how to achieve this, since the Unix "connect"
routine I use to connect to the remote server is synchronous. If anyone has
an example of a portable way to asnychronously connect over TCPIP I would be
happy to incoportate it. (In fact I don't even know how to set the timeout
period). 

>Also, is there any way to specify backup servers?  Does anyone else
>think this would be useful?

Yes this would be very useful, especially for the "master indexes" such as 
"academic information" at CERN. Probably not so easy to provide though...

Tony