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Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 14:46:13 -0800
From: Brian Pane <brian.pane@cnet.com>
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To: dev@httpd.apache.org
Subject: Re: Finding da fun.
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Ben Hyde wrote:

> In this discussion people have been making two kinds of lists.  The 
> list of hypothetical reasons why activity seems to be petering out.  
> The list of possible cures for those hypothetical ills.
>
> We need a third list.  A list of fun hacks that 2.0 enables.
>
> It would be good to spend more effort on what the compelling value in 
> the 2.0 family is and making it more accessible for people.  Doc that 
> lowers the barrier to entry.  Success stories that create a sense of 
> safety.


Fundamentally, the filter mechanism in 2.0 makes it easy to mix and match
different ways of obtaining content with different ways of delivering
content.  Need to run mod_include on the output of your servlet engine?
In 2.0, you can do so by editing a config file.  With most other webservers,
1.3 included, you have to rewrite the appserver connector.  Need to compress
or encrpyt the output of *any* handler?  In 2.0, you can do so by loading
the right filter and editing a config file.  Need to use special logic for
reading files from a document root due to NFS race conditions?  In 2.0, just
add a new handler and you can seamlessly stream the output through whatever
stack of output filters you're already using.

As for what's *wrong* with 2.0 (and 2.1), at the top of my list is 
scalability.
We probably need to move to a multiple-connection-per-thread 
architecture for
lower memory usage and more predictable response times under high loads.
Historically, this has been one of the most-discussed changes proposed for
2.1; the only limitation is finding time to work on it. :-)

Brian