Sockets

[Graham Samuel]

On Sun, 11 Dec 2005 08:32:55 -0800, Jim Hurley  
<jhurley at infostations.com> wrote:

> Now all I need to do is find out was a socket is. I know it must have
> something to do with light bulbs.
>
> Searched the dictionary for "socket" and came up with the single
> "Using URLs, uploading, and downloading", 18 pages (copied to Word)
> which don't  appear to contain the word "socket."
>
> Is there a secret RR society which is privy to this sort of thing?
> Can I join? Sock it to me.

I can't answer the question but I would very much like to be around  
when it is answered. When I was younger (**much** younger), I used to  
kind of absorb technical stuff without consciously learning about it,  
but nowadays stuff suddenly comes up and bites me in the rear and I  
wonder where it came from: for me, XML is like that, and so is most  
Internet stuff. Sockets, do we need them and is the term just a token  
or does it carry some metaphorical meaning? And that great forest of  
non-mnemonic clusters of letters like say DHCP - just look at the  
Network Control Panel on a Mac or PC and despair... I've tried to  
read my way into the subject, but it hasn't helped me much. For  
example, I noticed the following in the RR documentation for  
'OpenSockets':

> For technical information about the numbers used to designate  
> standard ports, see the list of port numbers at <http:// 
> www.iana.org/assignments/port-numbers>, in particular the section  
> titled "Well Known Port Numbers".

Following that link led to something surreal as far as I could see:  
what are all those individuals doing in there? And who or what is  
IANA? OK, I know I'm out of my depth.

Let's hope Andre can help us (on sockets, not the other stuff).

Graham

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Graham Samuel / The Living Fossil Co. / UK and France