Computing 205/406 & IT8
Tutorial #20
- What[1] is client/server computing? What distinguishes
client/server computing from any other form
of distributed data processing?
- Discuss the rationale for locating applications on the client,
the server, or split between the client and the server.
- What is Middle-Ware? Do you know of any examples?
- What is the difference between connection-oriented and RPC
communications for client/server computing?
- In the lecture, it was mentioned that XDR solves a similar
problem to ASN.1/BER. In what sense is this true? Do some
research[2] and discover
how XDR operates. Does this seem more or less efficient than
ASN.1/BER?
- In the lecture, it was claimed that the World Wide Web is an
excellent example of client/server "done right". In what sense
is this true, and is the WWW model more widely applicable as
a model of client/server?
- (Philosophical question) In the lecture, it was claimed that
the PCs in the computer labs at Bendigo are not in a
client/server relationship with the
Novell servers, in the modern sense of the term. In what sense is
this true? Is it necessarily true? What about the relationship
between the Indy workstations and the redgum NFS server?
- (Deeply philsophical, non-examinable question) Do you believe
all of the awful things that your lecturer said about data centres
and their relationship with management? Why, or why not?
Why is client/server computing the most fashionable game in
town? Does it have a future - why, or why not?
Practical exercises:
- Investigate RPC.
- Discover some PC or Mac programming languages which support
client/server programming.
- You can read more about client/server computing in the newsgroup
comp.client-server.
[1] The first five questions herein are from
Stallings and Van Slyke, page 527
[2] I guess this means asking your tutor...
This tutorial is also available in PostScript format.
Phil Scott