stacks interacting over LAN? (newbie)

[Mark Talluto]

On Dec 1, 2004, at 2:47 PM, kweto wrote:

> Hello again All,
>
> I've begun learning and putting into effect everyone's kind advise 
> about
> linking stacks thru sockets. Especially useful were the chat stacks. I 
> think
> I have a strong sense now of how to make it all work. Thank you to all!
>
> Now, a related-but-OT question. If messages from several 
> computers/stacks
> are sent out "simultaneously" to the one computer/stack which is 
> intended
> for accepting messages, in what order are those in-coming messages 
> likely to
> be handled? Of course, computers are fast so maybe there's nothing to 
> worry
> about, but a group of young learners can surprise teachers in 
> unpredicted
> ways, especially if they're clicking madly on the "I know the answer!"
> buzzer-like button of the LAN-based, interconnected stacks I'm now 
> planning.
> I'm worried/scared that, even though given things being equal (such as
> computer make and operating system), either the central stack itself or
> perhaps even the router might re-shuffle "simultaneous" messages in 
> some
> sort of order other than a real-time one, and thus one learner will 
> seem to
> be winning all the time.
>
>

Given that your users will be on a lan in the same physical location, 
the one that presses their button first should be the one to hit the 
server first.  If going over the net, lag time could affect the 
outcome, but should not be that critical.

-- 
Best regards,
Mark Talluto
http://www.canelasoftware.com