[vtkusers] using vtkSocketCommunicator for server application

[Berk Geveci]

> Are there any chances to integrate this into the VTK distribution
> some day when the code is tested and cleaned up ?
> If this is not the case, I would not spend to much time in making the code
> portable to every platform supported by VTK as I only use it on Windows
> (I have code there for Windows and general Unix, but I only have
> access to Linux to test the Unix parts).

Yes. The features you added sound nice and it would benefit other
users. However, we have to make sure that everything works well
on various platforms. I can help you with this. 
 
> The second question: if it could be added to VTK, should it be
> completely compatible to the original class ?. If this is not
> necessary, one could integrate things like mutual authentication and
> session encryption.

Not necessarily. However, if you think of adding advanced features
like encryption, I think they should be done either in a helper
class which can be plugged in or in a sub-class. This would make
maintaining the basic classes easier. 
 
> By the way: if you use the vtkSocketCommunicator in a more VTK like
> style (together with "vtkInput/OutputPort"), is it possible to "break up"
> very big data objects and transfer them "step by step" ? Could you use
> "vtkImageDataStreamer" for this ? Could anyone provide some
> examples of this ?

In certain cases, it is possible to do this. The answer depends on
what you are trying to achieve. Can you describe your application in
more detail ? Are you only using image data ? Are you always using ports
or just sending data directly ? Is the client interactive or does it do
"batch" processing ?

-Berk