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105 lines
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<div class="section">
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<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title">
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<a name="boost_asio.overview.rationale"></a><a class="link" href="rationale.html" title="Rationale">Rationale</a>
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</h3></div></div></div>
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<p>
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Most programs interact with the outside world in some way, whether it be
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via a file, a network, a serial cable, or the console. Sometimes, as is the
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case with networking, individual I/O operations can take a long time to complete.
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This poses particular challenges to application development.
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</p>
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<p>
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Boost.Asio provides the tools to manage these long running operations, without
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requiring programs to use concurrency models based on threads and explicit
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locking.
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</p>
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<p>
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The Boost.Asio library is intended for programmers using C++ for systems
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programming, where access to operating system functionality such as networking
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is often required. In particular, Boost.Asio addresses the following goals:
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</p>
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<div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; ">
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<li class="listitem">
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<span class="bold"><strong>Portability.</strong></span> The library should support
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a range of commonly used operating systems, and provide consistent behaviour
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across these operating systems.
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</li>
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<li class="listitem">
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<span class="bold"><strong>Scalability.</strong></span> The library should facilitate
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the development of network applications that scale to thousands of concurrent
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connections. The library implementation for each operating system should
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use the mechanism that best enables this scalability.
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</li>
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<li class="listitem">
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<span class="bold"><strong>Efficiency.</strong></span> The library should support
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techniques such as scatter-gather I/O, and allow programs to minimise
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data copying.
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</li>
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<li class="listitem">
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<span class="bold"><strong>Model concepts from established APIs, such as BSD
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sockets.</strong></span> The BSD socket API is widely implemented and understood,
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and is covered in much literature. Other programming languages often
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use a similar interface for networking APIs. As far as is reasonable,
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Boost.Asio should leverage existing practice.
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</li>
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<li class="listitem">
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<span class="bold"><strong>Ease of use.</strong></span> The library should provide
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a lower entry barrier for new users by taking a toolkit, rather than
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framework, approach. That is, it should try to minimise the up-front
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investment in time to just learning a few basic rules and guidelines.
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After that, a library user should only need to understand the specific
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functions that are being used.
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</li>
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<li class="listitem">
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<span class="bold"><strong>Basis for further abstraction.</strong></span> The library
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should permit the development of other libraries that provide higher
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levels of abstraction. For example, implementations of commonly used
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protocols such as HTTP.
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</li>
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</ul></div>
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<p>
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Although Boost.Asio started life focused primarily on networking, its concepts
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of asynchronous I/O have been extended to include other operating system
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resources such as serial ports, file descriptors, and so on.
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</p>
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</div>
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<table xmlns:rev="http://www.cs.rpi.edu/~gregod/boost/tools/doc/revision" width="100%"><tr>
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<td align="left"></td>
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<td align="right"><div class="copyright-footer">Copyright © 2003-2021 Christopher
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M. Kohlhoff<p>
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Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See accompanying
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file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at <a href="http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt" target="_top">http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt</a>)
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</p>
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</div></td>
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