High-level network programming: is C language suitable for that?

On Friday, April 27, 2012 6:07:08 PM UTC+1, Jens Thoms Toerring wrote:
> nick_keighley_nospam@hotmail.com wrote:
> > On Thursday, April 26, 2012 8:54:40 PM UTC+1, Jens Thoms Toerring wrote:

> > > Of course, all this can be done in C (most scripting languages
> > > are actually implemented in C, so everything you can do in
> > > those languages can obviously be done in C).
>
> > this is a theoretically true but practically useless.
>
> Well, the OP was asking "if C language is good enough for that";-)

true, but implementing a script langauge before you start implementing the real problem may be an indication you've picked the wrong langauge. Though the Lisp metalinguists may disagree as might Fowler's "Domain Specific Languages"

> > > But note that C
> > > has no "native" support for networking or graphics, thus the
> > > need for additional (cross-platform) libraries (unless you're
> > > keen to re-invent the wheel;-). For TFTP and other protocols
> > > libcurl seems to be a candidate to take a look at. I don't
> > > know about BOOTP (wasn't that obsoleted by DHCP?). For gra-
> > > phics the only cross-platform library for C I know about is
> > > GTK+ (but I never used it) - most other seem to require C++.
>
> > openGL, Qt
>
> I fear using OpenGL for a simple GUI might not be too
> suitable since it's a rendering library and what you
> want for most simple GUIs is a set of widgets you can
> easily manipulate,

I've used an inhouse GUI tool that was built on top of OpenGL, though of course building that's extemly non-trivial!

There's GLUT that claims to be a GUI interface

which isn't what OpenGL meant for
> if I didn't mis-understand its purpose. Qt is defini-
> tely C++ and I guess it could be a real pain if one
> would try to marry it to a C program...
>
> Regards, Jens
> --
> \ Jens Thoms Toerring ___ jt@toerring.de
> \__________________________ http://toerring.de



On Friday, April 27, 2012 6:07:08 PM UTC+1, Jens Thoms Toerring wrote:
> nick_keighley_nospam@hotmail.com wrote:
> > On Thursday, April 26, 2012 8:54:40 PM UTC+1, Jens Thoms Toerring wrote:
> > > Of course, all this can be done in C (most scripting languages
> > > are actually implemented in C, so everything you can do in
> > > those languages can obviously be done in C).
>
> > this is a theoretically true but practically useless.
>
> Well, the OP was asking "if C language is good enough for that";-)
>
> > > But note that C
> > > has no "native" support for networking or graphics, thus the
> > > need for additional (cross-platform) libraries (unless you're
> > > keen to re-invent the wheel;-). For TFTP and other protocols
> > > libcurl seems to be a candidate to take a look at. I don't
> > > know about BOOTP (wasn't that obsoleted by DHCP?). For gra-
> > > phics the only cross-platform library for C I know about is
> > > GTK+ (but I never used it) - most other seem to require C++.
>
> > openGL, Qt
>
> I fear using OpenGL for a simple GUI might not be too
> suitable since it's a rendering library and what you
> want for most simple GUIs is a set of widgets you can
> easily manipulate, which isn't what OpenGL meant for
> if I didn't mis-understand its purpose. Qt is defini-
> tely C++ and I guess it could be a real pain if one
> would try to marry it to a C program...
>
> Regards, Jens
> --
> \ Jens Thoms Toerring ___ jt@toerring.de
> \__________________________ http://toerring.de

On Friday, April 27, 2012 11:37:41 PM UTC+1, Jens Thoms Toerring wrote:
> Rui Maciel wrote:
> > Jens Thoms Toerring wrote:

<snip>

> > There is a considerable number of graphics and networking libraries
> > which provide a C API and are extensively used. For example, OpenGL,
> > POSIX sockets and GTK come to mind.
>
> That's just what, in the rest of my post, I thought I had
> mentioned;-) Though I wouldn't consider OpenGL to be a GUI
> library

no it isn't. GLUT might be though.

("simple GUI" doesn't evoke the association of "fast
> 3D rendering" for me but more "a few buttons and maybe a few
> other useful widgets").

does everyone need "fast 3d rendering"? You can write some pretty fancy GUIapplications without it. And he's doing network programming not Halo-N. A few buttons and forms and maybe a histogram or line graph would seem about it for network programming GUI. How complicated can you make BOOTP!

> And I don't know, not being a Windows
> programmer, how far the POSIX socket API is supported under
> Windows, the OPs primary target

Windows has its own socket interafec that is just slightly different from BSD (and I assume Posix). Just enough to be irritating. A fairly thin wrapper can hide the differences.

> - and my impression was any-
> way that he wanted something more "high-level", that's why I
> mentioned libcurl as something to consider for (at least) part
> of his task.

On Fri, 27 Apr 2012 17:07:38 +0200, pozz <pozzugno@gmail.com> wrote:

>Il 27/04/2012 16:27, nick_keighley_nospam@hotmail.com ha scritto:
>[...]
>>> For gra-
>>> phics the only cross-platform library for C I know about is
>>> GTK+ (but I never used it) - most other seem to require C++.
>>
>> openGL, Qt
>
>QT? I knew QT was for C++ and not C language.


The latest version of QT appears to have separate libraries for C and
C++, and other languages.

It might just be how the defaults are pre-set, but it now lists C and
C++ separately.

MJR

On 4/27/2012 5:37 PM, Jens Thoms Toerring wrote:
> Rui Maciel<rui.maciel@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Jens Thoms Toerring wrote:
[snip]
>> There is a considerable number of graphics and networking libraries
>> which provide a C API and are extensively used. For example, OpenGL,
>> POSIX sockets and GTK come to mind.
>
> That's just what, in the rest of my post, I thought I had
> mentioned;-) Though I wouldn't consider OpenGL to be a GUI
> library ("simple GUI" doesn't evoke the association of "fast
> 3D rendering" for me but more "a few buttons and maybe a few
> other useful widgets"). And I don't know, not being a Windows
> programmer, how far the POSIX socket API is supported under
> Windows, the OPs primary target - and my impression was any-
> way that he wanted something more "high-level", that's why I
> mentioned libcurl as something to consider for (at least) part
> of his task.
> Regards, Jens

If you want the POSIX socket API under Windows, you might want
to investigate the Cygwin method of getting a Linux emulation
under Windows.

Robert Miles