[Gnu-arch-users] Re: RFC: arch protocol, smart server, and tla implementation prototypes

[Chris Gray]

On 5 Feb 2004, Aaron Bentley wrote:
> Chris Gray wrote:
>> sort of obscured my original message.  My message was that
>> skiplists are a data structure that you should consider for reasons
>> of efficiency, simplicity, and size.  I feel they would be
>> preferable to what we have now and easier to implement than a truly
>> smart server.
>>
> So are you saying that the protocol needs to support skiplists?  Or
> is it a server implementation detail?

Neither. (See below).

> How would a skip list be used in this context?  The paper you
> reference shows the user of skiplists for search, insertion and
> deletion, but how does that apply to a server that must decide what
> requests are worthy of creating and caching, and which are
> worthless?

I'm arguing against the creation of a smart server I guess.  

Currently, when you commit a patch in arch, it is like you are adding
a new element to a linked list.  I'm saying that we could change the
data structure to a skiplist and keep the dumb server.  All of the
summary deltas and data structure maintenance would happen client
side.  

Something more deterministic would probably be a better approach for a
smart server.

Cheers,
Chris