| Our C++NPv1 book addressed how to master certain complexities of developing networked applications, focusing on the use of ACE's wrapper facades to avoid problems with operating system APIs written in C. This book (which we call C++NPv2) elevates our focus to motivate and demystify the patterns, design techniques, and C++ features associated with developing and using the ACE frameworks. These frameworks help reduce the cost and improve the quality of networked applications by reifying proven software designs and patterns into frameworks that can be reused systematically across projects and enterprises . The ACE frameworks expand reuse technology far beyond what can be achieved by reusing individual classes or even class libraries. This book presents numerous C++ applications to reinforce the design discussions by showing concrete examples of how to use the ACE frameworks. These examples provide step-by-step guidance that can help you apply key object-oriented techniques and patterns to your own networked applications. The book also shows how to enhance your design skills, focusing on the key concepts and principles that shape the design of successful object-oriented frameworks for networked applications and middleware. The chapters in the book are organized as follows : -
Chapter 1 introduces the concept of an object-oriented framework and shows how frameworks differ from other reuse techniques, such as class libraries, components , patterns, and model-integrated computing. We then outline the frameworks in the ACE toolkit that are covered in subsequent chapters. -
Chapter 2 completes the domain analysis begun in C++NPv1, which covered the communication protocols and mechanisms, and the concurrency architectures used by networked applications. The focus in this book is on the service and configuration design dimensions that address key networked application properties, such as duration and structure, how networked services are identified, and the time at which they are bound together to form complete applications. -
Chapter 3 describes the design and use of the ACE Reactor framework, which implements the Reactor pattern [POSA2] to allow event-driven applications to demultiplex and dispatch service requests that are delivered to an application from one or more clients . -
Chapter 4 then describes the design and use of the most common implementations of the ACE_Reactor interface, which support a wide range of OS event demultiplexing mechanisms, including select() , WaitForMultipleObjects() , XtAppMainLoop() , and /dev/poll . -
Chapter 5 describes the design and use of the ACE Service Configurator framework. This framework implements the Component Configurator pattern [POSA2] to allow an application to link/unlink its component service implementations at run time without having to modify, recompile, or relink the application statically. -
Chapter 6 describes the design and effective use of the ACE Task framework. This framework can be used to implement key concurrency patterns, such as Active Object and Half-Sync/Half-Async [POSA2]. -
Chapter 7 describes the design and effective use of the ACE Acceptor-Connector framework. This framework implements the Acceptor-Connector pattern [POSA2] to decouple the connection and initialization of cooperating peer services in a networked system from the processing they perform once connected and initialized . -
Chapter 8 describes the design and use of the ACE Proactor framework. This framework implements the Proactor and Acceptor-Connector patterns [POSA2] to allow event-driven applications to efficiently demultiplex and dispatch service requests triggered by the completion of asynchronously initiated operations. -
Chapter 9 describes the design and use of the ACE Streams framework. This framework implements the Pipes and Filters pattern [POSA1] to provide a structure for systems that process streams of data. -
The book concludes with a glossary of technical terms, a list of references for further study, and a general subject index. The chapters are organized to build upon each other and to minimize forward references. We therefore recommend that you read the chapters in order. Although this book illustrates the key capabilities of ACE's most important frameworks, we don't cover all uses and methods of those frameworks. For additional coverage of ACE, we refer you to The ACE Programmer's Guide [HJS] and the online ACE reference documentation, generated by Doxygen [Dim01]. ACE's reference documentation is available at http://ace.ece.uci.edu/Doxygen/ and http://www.riverace.com/docs/. |
