Pages tagged comms:

Whither Sockets? - ACM Queue
http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=1538949

The Internet and the networking world in general have changed in very significant ways since the sockets API was first developed, but in many ways the API has had the effect of narrowing the way in which developers think about and write networked applications. This article begins by briefly examining some of the conditions present when the sockets API was developed and considers how those conditions shaped the way in which networking code was written. The remainder of the article looks at ways in which developers have tried to get around some of the inherent limitations in the API and talks about the future of sockets in a changing networked world.
"High bandwidth, low latency, and multihoming challenge the sockets API." (via @gnat) Especially true when people like Michael Nygard say things like "I prefer my servers to have a minimum of 4 NICs, preferably 6".