[whatwg] BWTP for WebSocket transfer protocol

[Maciej Stachowiak]

Hi Greg,

On Aug 7, 2009, at 10:07 PM, Greg Wilkins wrote:

>
> Again this is valuable feedback.
>
> That's three -0' or -1's on the look-a-like-HTTP approach.
>
> I'll ponder what sort of simplifications could be made
> if the HTTP style is dropped.

I'm not sure the HTTP-style framing is necessarily a minus, it's just  
not much of a plus. I think the complexity cost is from the number of  
features added. I think a possible fruitful approach might be:

- Review what features BWTP adds.
- Pare down to just the most essential ones that provide a lot of  
benefit at the protocol level relative to doing them at the  
application level.
- Leave enough extensibility that other useful protocol-level features  
can be added in a future version.

I'm concerned about the 1.0 version of the protocol, whatever it may  
be, being too complex. The downsides of complexity are: (a) longer  
time-to-market for the core functionality; (b) likely worse  
interoperability in the initial implementations; (c) more risk of  
security bugs. On the other hand, I would also be concerned about  
deploying something that didn't have an elegant path to future  
extension.

I intend to look over the protocol details and I will encourage the  
other folks doing implementation or design work on WebKit's WebSocket  
to give it a look. Then hopefully I can add a more concrete proposal.

I tentatively agree with Jonas that in-protocol multiplexing sounds  
like one of the most valuable additional features, as compared to  
WebSocket Protocol.

Regards,
Maciej