[Xitami] Xitami/5 - new project announcement

[Marc Doigny]

Van: xitami-bounces at lists.xitami.org namens Pieter Hintjens
Verzonden: zo 4/01/2009 10:53
Aan: Xitami Users General Discussion
CC: shands at redlineuk.com
Onderwerp: Re: [Xitami] Xitami/5 - new project announcement


On Sun, Jan 4, 2009 at 8:37 AM, Marc Doigny <marc at verfaillie.be> wrote:

 > I choosed for Xitami in the first place for it's easy CGI implementation. Still use Xitami for it's CGI capabilities (using powerbasic, not visual basic) on 
w'98, w2000 and xp pro

This is good feedback.  OK, so CGI is important for Xitami/5.  Can you
explain why you felt it was easier in Xitami than in other web
servers?


One of the big advantages of Xitami over others (for instance Aprelium Abyss) is that Xitami allows different configurations for i/o: streams or files. Streams 
(standard input/ standard output) seems to be much faster, but windows has trouble handling large amounts of data (forms processing including images in excess 
of 1MB). It's really a windows thing, using different workarounds can alleviate the problem (for instance using SLEEP commands in the source code, fine tuning 
the code to read STDIN). With files, you just look at the size of the input file and slurp it in one piece into your application.

Working with files for i/o is much more user friendly. For instance, you can write your application the way you like, and if there is an error condition 
somewhere (input field without data), you can rewrite the html output file from the beginning.
I also like the way Xitami handles the CGI output: look at the first line and decide if it's NPH (non parsed headers). Really great! Makes it possible to write 
and if necessary rewrite html response output on the fly. And you always can look at the files to pinpoint a problem.

I also like the way Xitami assumes it's an executable, by looking at the directory. So you can avoid using telltale extensions www.site.com/apx/process.EXE
Just using an url www.site.com/apx/process is enough to get the application running.

Compared to other servers, the way the configuration files are handled are the best: first load the defaults config file, the use the general config (containing 
the differences from the default file), and at last use the specific config file for a host. It's CCC: Cascading Config Configuration!

I've tried lots of servers, and Xitami is still the easiest to use and the most stable in the long run.
Still missing in Xitami is a native gzip encoding.
What i would like is a way to tell Xitami "the output is done and you can send it to the user, i'm still doing some housecleaning"

marc