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WebGL + Node.js + WebSockets = A Web Technology Perfect Storm

travisglines.com

31–40 of 69 posts

Re: WebGL + Node.js + WebSockets = A Web Technology Perfect Storm

#31
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You could have done with AJAX what WebSockets does If you consider long-polling (the nearest approximation you can do with AJAX) the same as true bi-directional communication.

[deleted]

Please show me how a server can send two consecutive messages to a long-polling client without requiring the client to make a request between the receipt of message 1 and message 2.

Re: WebGL + Node.js + WebSockets = A Web Technology Perfect Storm

#32
post #3

On the latest version of Chrome / Ubuntu Linux, doesn't work for me.

Close your browser. Open the console. Open your browser with: google-chrome --enable-webgl --ignore-gpu-blacklist

This does not work on Chromium 12.0.712.0 (79102) on Ubuntu 10.10. Everything just silently fails with "Error creating WebGL context." in JS console.

Re: WebGL + Node.js + WebSockets = A Web Technology Perfect Storm

#34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are "cheerleading" node.js because they tried it, successfully built something with it and want to give proper credit to their stack. The existence/prevalence of node.js submissions does not imply that anyone thinks it any more technologically capable than Twisted, Go, Tornado, or eventlet. Node.js just happens to be simpler to install, have more easily accessible documentation and has more of a network effect…

My point is that the proliferation of HN posts regarding node.js is not reflective or driven by a host of new and significant improvements that it brings to the table. I suppose one response is this shouldn't be surprising, since anything implemented after the 70s could have been done with C instead of language X. But my complaint is that it seems a lot of attention is paid to projects which are not actually doing ne…

I'd argue that being in javascript is an advantage rather than a disadvantage. Sharing code between server and client (browser) is much easier, and there is no alternative to javascript in the browser.

I'm not saying javascript is the king of languages, just that we're limited to it because that's what's in the browser, and writing server code in the same language simplifies things.

Re: WebGL + Node.js + WebSockets = A Web Technology Perfect Storm

#36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I should make people spawn in random places instead off all at the same spot to change that (what you're seeing is like 100 overlapped blocks).

What is the purpose of the large black Kaabah structure in the middle?

It can be really hard to get your bearings sometimes if things are all the same shape/size, especially if there isn't many people in the app. It needed a central location or gathering point so I figured why not throw a giant obelisk thingy in there?

Its fun watching what people say about it. They want to know why its there, why its black and if its real.

Re: WebGL + Node.js + WebSockets = A Web Technology Perfect Storm

#37

One of these is not like the others: node.js is a nice, progressive step forward, not a leap that is discontinuous with what preceded it like WebGL and WebSockets. And certainly, node.js did not enable this chat example to happen -- not in the same way that WebGL or WebSockets did. I am getting a little tired with the node.js cheerleading on HN. I've tried it and I don't see it as a huge leap forward from what can be…

I use node.js for batch processing: it's just fantastic. Instead of ugly bash scripts that are absolutely unreadable and therefore unmaintainable, I get to write beautiful Javascript and lightning fast JSON processing and transformation. This is an area where node.js really shines and that is not often mentioned.

As for client-server development, I think the future is going back to the client. Instead of "dumb clients", what we have now are extremely powerful and fast clients. It's much cheaper to send raw data to the client and compute it there, since as a web developer you pay for server CPU, but not for client CPU. (Of course, it's a little wasteful since the computation happens many times instead of one; but you can always send the results back to the server for caching, if that worries you).

Re: WebGL + Node.js + WebSockets = A Web Technology Perfect Storm

#38
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My point is that the proliferation of HN posts regarding node.js is not reflective or driven by a host of new and significant improvements that it brings to the table. I suppose one response is this shouldn't be surprising, since anything implemented after the 70s could have been done with C instead of language X. But my complaint is that it seems a lot of attention is paid to projects which are not actually doing ne…

I'd argue that being in javascript is an advantage rather than a disadvantage. Sharing code between server and client (browser) is much easier, and there is no alternative to javascript in the browser. I'm not saying javascript is the king of languages, just that we're limited to it because that's what's in the browser, and writing server code in the same language simplifies things.

Server side logic is usually radically different. And given that you usually share information between the server and the client in a language agnostic manner (e.g. JSON) and that the client (browser) cannot be trusted with other than view logic, I see few cases where implementation specific code sharing contributes greatly.

The server and the client has such different concerns that code sharing probably wouldn't contribute that much.

Re: WebGL + Node.js + WebSockets = A Web Technology Perfect Storm

#39

I love the demo for it's thought provoking stab in the brain. I love three.js and can't wait to tie it into my own app. re: WebGL games. The clients will all be "open source" (as they're javascript). What effect do you all think that'll have on the future web-based gaming industry?

The most obvious problem is probably that it's way easier to develop bots/cheats for those games.

Since I'm currently developing a WebGL game I'm actively searching for ideas to detect that behavior.

The only solution I can think of is, to capture any data with timestamp coming from the client and applying some tests to it like "is the client sending more messages than a normal client" or more advanced: sending the input through a statistical filter to detect possible cheating and investigate from there on.

Re: WebGL + Node.js + WebSockets = A Web Technology Perfect Storm

#40
post #37

One of these is not like the others: node.js is a nice, progressive step forward, not a leap that is discontinuous with what preceded it like WebGL and WebSockets. And certainly, node.js did not enable this chat example to happen -- not in the same way that WebGL or WebSockets did. I am getting a little tired with the node.js cheerleading on HN. I've tried it and I don't see it as a huge leap forward from what can be…

I use node.js for batch processing: it's just fantastic. Instead of ugly bash scripts that are absolutely unreadable and therefore unmaintainable, I get to write beautiful Javascript and lightning fast JSON processing and transformation. This is an area where node.js really shines and that is not often mentioned. As for client-server development, I think the future is going back to the client. Instead of "dumb client…

> I use node.js for batch processing: it's just fantastic. Instead of ugly bash scripts that are absolutely unreadable and therefore unmaintainable

I am confused: if you don't like bash scripts why in science's sake did you keep using them instead of one of the billion alternatives out there?

> This is an area where node.js really shines and that is not often mentioned.

Because it's nonsensical. What makes node.js "shine" more at batch processing more than every other language on the planet?

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