[rtg] Traffic is wrapping

[bill fumerola]

On Tue, Apr 08, 2008 at 03:16:10PM -0600, Leech, Jonathan wrote:
> What's on sourceforge is intended to be a starting point. I don't have
> any users I know of other than me, so I haven't prioritized updating the
> code. 

ok.

> However, JRTG hasn't changed much since the version that's up there. One
> or two bug fixes. Also I've built an RRD module that uses RRD4J to write
> values to files instead of a database. I have also been kicking around
> the idea of building a TargetParser that can read Cricket's equivalent
> of a targets file.

normally, i like consolidating efforts on projects. unfortunately, the
only way i see to leverage work being done in your project and rtg would
be to use something like thrift[1] and seperate out the poller, config
parser, database insertion, etc. people could run different parts of
the system on different machines, JRTG could be used for the database
layer, the C poller could be used to feed it, etc.

this is just dreamworld stuff. i've wanted to seperate some of the C
code into seperate daemons for various reasons. thrift would be great,
but...

thrift doesn't have C bindings yet (and while many desire, it's a tough
nut to crack). that kills that idea unless we convert the existing rtg
to C++, which would be Yet Another Rewrite.

think of this, though... with thrift we could have a perl targetmaker,
a python config parser, a C or ruby poller, a java database aggregator,
an almost infinite amount of combinations.

it's neat. it also would require serious rototilling. not gonna happen.

> Thanks for the link to Joel, I hadn't read that one. He makes some very
> good points. My particular school curriculum was mainly C++, a little
> assembly. I already had a background in C and C++ prior to college so I
> was immune to the weed out courses Joel mentions. I think the problem
> nowadays isn't in teaching Java, its the failure of the schools to teach
> something hard enough to weed out the incapable.

i wasn't implying you were one of the people he mentions. it's just a
good summary on why language, while important, really isn't the mark of
a good program or programmer.

-- bill

1. http://developers.facebook.com/thrift/