I know this a heretical idea, but I was wondering what people would think about writing the dependency on AOLServer
as a web server out of OpenACS, and supporting a pure-TCL FastCGI interface or some type of service contract(?) that would support both.
I asked Michael Cleverly about the feasibility of using his nstcl API for this, and he said the only problem he could see would be blocking on long running queries. I don't think that's too big a deal, because AFAIK you can run a collection of TCL/FastCGI interpreters and load balance between them.
Talli and I just discussed this on IM... Here's the link on my blog for people interested in (perhaps tolerant of?) a more impassioned version of this write-up.
My direct motivation is that I would like to get the MSSQL data model port I did into production. In considering my options, I think that AOLServer particulars are the biggest barrier to that being an easy proposition. Also, before Don begins goading, I'm willing to take a stab at this and see if/what I can get to run under tcl/FCGI, but I would certainly be interested in hearing that I might not be the only one interested in using it when it reaches a useful stage. Also, since I'm not nearly as up on the AOLServer dependencies, is there any reason why this wouldn't work or would be very difficult?
I should also say that the work Dan's done is very cool, and seems highly useful in the near term, esp. for WebDav. I've just rolled out my second webdav-enabled KM systems - clients *love* it. But I'd like to raise this slightly off-topic scenario because longer term I think it addresses a lot more recurring integration/portability issues.
