[PD] [PD-dev] networking updates

[Christof Ressi]

Hi Roman,

thanks a lot for testing!

> I think 'ASCII' should be re-labeled as 'FUDI', since that it is the protocol the non-binary mode actually uses.

Agreed! Fixed it in the documentation.

Christof

> Gesendet: Freitag, 11. Oktober 2019 um 23:53 Uhr
> Von: "Roman Haefeli" <reduzent at gmail.com>
> An: pd-dev at lists.iem.at
> Betreff: Re: [PD-dev] networking updates
>
> Hey Dan
>
> On Sun, 2019-08-11 at 03:49 +0200, Dan Wilcox wrote:
>
> > Christoph and I have more or less finished some work that updates
> > Pd's networking and also fixes some  bugs and a couple pain points:
>
> Cool. Thank you both!
>
> I did test a few things with patches I just made up (on Ubuntu 18.04),
> since my network-based patches usually use iemnet. Although, I can't
> help you out with real-world data, here are some findings:
>
> > * IPv6 support
>
> I wasn't able to test yet. I was worried about the future with Pd and
> networking, but don't have to be now, thanks to you ;-)
>
> > * multicast
>
> Works for me, between different computers in the same LAN and also
> between different software (nc -> Pd, Pd <-> Pd).
>
> > * netsend: optional from hostname & port outlet
>
> That's really useful and absolutely necessary when dealing with
> multiple incoming connections. Only now it is possible to write server-
> like patches with Pd-vanilla.
>
> > * netsend: connectionless UDP, no more connection refused (fire &
> > forget without having to manually reconnect)
>
> Although the old behavior was "correct" in some sense (it was
> nitpickingly correct to terminate a link to an endpoint detected not to
> be existent), I think the new behavior is much more useful. It works
> well for me, I can shut down the receiving host, restart the software
> or even replace the software by another listening on the same port, the
> packets still arrive.
>
> > * netreceive: settable timeout which defaults to 10 seconds (no more
> > super-long frozen Pd)
>
> Definitely an improvement, too. The OS defaults are way too long. The
> default is good, having it settable even better.
>
> > * improved error printing with netsend and netrceive Find Last Error
> > support
> > * various small bug fixes (no more polling errors after socket is
> > closed)
>
> Nice.
>
> > One current limitation is that Tcl 8.5 does not have IPv6 support, so
> > the core communication with the GUI remains IPv4.
>
> I wouldn't know why the internal connection should switch to IPv6. My
> gut feeling is that such things will stay on IPv4 for quite long.
>
>
> One little thing bugs me in the help file of [netsend] and I just
> noticed that it was there since at least 0.47: The different modes are
> labeled 'ASCII' vs. 'binary'. I think 'ASCII' is misleading in that
> there are semantics in the message format. Spaces have meaning,
> messages are always terminated by semi-colon. You can't use the 'ASCII'
> mode for generating arbitrary messages. 'ASCII' suggests you could use
> it to write valid HTTP requests which you can't. I think 'ASCII' should
> be re-labeled as 'FUDI', since that it is the protocol the non-binary
> mode actually uses.
>
> I think these are _very_ valuable improvements for Pd's net objects. I
> can't think of a reason not to include them. Of course, it would be
> interesting to get some feedback also from people who actually have
> patches that heavily use those objects.
>
> Roman
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