Re: [hybi] updated Charter proposal (WebSocket)

[Ian Hickson <[e-mail]>]

On Tue, 27 Oct 2009, Mark Nottingham wrote:
> 
> There really isn't anything for proxy vendors to implement in 
> WebSockets, is there? Provided that they support CONNECT, of course.

Right; as written, WebSocket can be used with explicit SOCKS or HTTP 
proxies (in the latter case using CONNECT), and there's no built-in 
support for dedicated WebSocket proxies though man-in-the-middle proxies 
could be written to handle unencrypted WebSocket proxies if there was a 
need to do so (though I can't see what the point would be).


> To get proxy vendors on board, there will need to be overlay protocols 
> that allow them, for example, to multiplex many client connections into 
> one server connection, but that's far and above what WS does.
>
> Or do you intend to go in that direction?

Not currently. I don't see why we would.

I would expect server-side implementations to translate incoming WebSocket 
connections into appropriate internal connections; e.g. if Example Corp 
uses RPC extensively internally in their datacenters, a front-line server 
could receive a long-lived WebSocket connection (speaking that site's 
subprotocol) and translate it into short-lived RPC on the backend. 
However, that would be layered above WebSocket just like this kind of 
thing is layered above hanging-GET systems today.

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'