[uf-rest] AHAH and delay: "push" as "lazy pull"

[Dr. Ernie Prabhakar]

Hi Ryan,

On Nov 27, 2005, at 9:20 AM, Ryan King wrote:
>>
>> However, my hypothesis is that you can also implement "push" as  
>> "lazy pull."
>
> I'm pretty sure I've seen this hypothesis proven already.

I know Rohit proposed it a while ago, as Roy  alludes to here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rest-discuss/message/5266

I'm just not (yet) sure of how generally applicable that is.

>> Yeah, that sort of thing.  Basically, any scenario where the  
>> client wants 'instant' notification. The main advantage over  
>> polling is that it requires much less use of network resources.   
>> That said, it does hold a connection on the server, which consumes  
>> server resources.  On the other hand, I still suspect the overall  
>> impact is less than if the server had to implement 'true' push  
>> (vs. this, what, "pseudo-push").
>
> There's one little problem with using this in browsers- most (I  
> think) browsers will constantly look like its loading a page, which  
> can be quite unsettling to users.

Well, that's why I wanted to implement this within AHAH.  Last I  
checked, browsers don't notice if XMLHTTPRequests are pending.

-- Ernie P.