[zeromq-dev] The CAP theorem: A taxonomy for 0MQ sockets, devices, patterns and best practices?

[Martin Sustrik]

Mark V wrote:

> I wonder if it doesn't make sense to consistently describe 0MQ, its
> sockets, its devices, patterns and best practices in terms of the CAP
> theorem?

It definitely makes sense to describe individual messaging patterns by 
global properties that are guaranteed for a network of nodes in addition 
to properties of each individual node.

C, A and P are good examples of such global properties. There definitely 
are others as well (the ones I am most interested in are those that have 
to do with scalability).

However, I don't believe it should go into the user guide. This is an 
advanced stuff and it would only confuse the reader struggling with most 
basic concepts.

What I want to do is to involve the academia with the issues like this 
one. It can be expressed this way: Forget about 0MQ or any other 
software. Define some basic properties of an individual node and find 
out what the global properties of the network of such nodes would look 
like. This is an exercise for people with strong formal background 
(think of pi calculus or such) rather than engineers and developers.

Anyway, now I'm coding hard. Academic stuff has to wait for a while :)

Martin