LOGIN | REGISTER NOW | SUBSCRIBE
 
print Printable version 
Most Read Latest News Blog Resources
Three non-programming books for your booklist
Aside from programming skills, developers should know how management works and how to oper...
Microsoft pushes Windows Phone 7 development tools
Ahead of the smartphone's release, Microsoft is letting developers download its tools in a...
Windows & .NET Watch: LightSwitch turns up
Microsoft's newest development environment will need to go a long way to fulfill its poten...
JavaOne returns with an Oracle twist
Oracle OpenWorld will be bigger than ever this year as the event adds JavaOne to the sched...
Digg!  Digg
Reddit  Reddit
Slashdot  Slashdot
Share on facebook  Facebook
Share on Twitter  Twitter


            iphoneapp GET THE APP!

Windows & .NET Watch: Chain reactive


By Larry O'Brien
October 1, 2009 —  (Page 1 of 3)
An interactive program is one in which the program pulls input from the environment: System.Console.ReadKey(). A reactive program is one in which (after an initial wiring-up) the environment pushes input to the program: myKeyPressEventHandler(Object sender, KeyPressEventArgs e) { … etc … }. Today, most programmers mostly write reactive programs.

The reactive style is a good fit for programs that wish to remain active while waiting for a particular input event (e.g., fire other events relating to the cursor position, repaint the screen, update a graphic, etc.). In other words, it’s a good fit for applications with GUIs and for Web pages seeking that AJAX-y goodness. (“Functional reactive programming” is more mathematically rigorous and involves not just events but continuously varying valuables; we can leave it aside for this discussion.)

The reactive style requires more setup, but it allows for the program to more easily do other things while waiting for a particular input event. The success of AJAX is testament to the perceived benefits of the reactive style. It combines JavaScript’s event-handling mechanism with the extraordinarily slow callback mechanism that is a Web query, but nonetheless applications written with AJAX are generally seen by users as more responsive because they don’t involve a whole-page refresh.

While the market has voted in favor of the end result of the reactive style, the plumbing beneath such a Web-based application is a mess. Such applications are very likely running JavaScript to dynamically power the UI, a server-side language such as C# to describe the business logic, and SQL to describe its persistence model.

Even if you put the programming language aside, the data models at hand are confusing. The display inside the browser is based on a Document Object Model. Complex data flowing over the Web is in another hierarchical text-based format, either XML or JSON. Business logic running at the server is likely to be working with a directed graph of objects. Persistence, for most of us, is a combination of filesystem objects (for “mere” content and configuration) and relational data described with SQL.

Related Search Term(s): LINQ

Pages 1 2 3 


Share this link: http://www.sdtimes.com/link/33792
 

Add comment


Name*
Email*  
Country     


  • Comment
  • Preview
Loading



 
 
 
 
News on Monday
more>>
SharePoint Tech Report
more>>


   

 
 
Download Current Issue
ISSUE 9/1/2010 PDF

Need Back Issues?
DOWNLOAD HERE

Receive the print Edition?


 
blogs tab
VMworld hops to it
Data center operating systems play a big part at VMworld, but it's still too soon.
09/02/2010 01:42 PM EST

Certificate program for secure cloud computing
The Cloud Security Alliance introduces user certification.
09/01/2010 04:20 PM EST

What does the Army's Crusher tank and RIM's tablet computer have in common?
RIM plans to use Crusher tank technology on its yet-to-be-announced tablet.
08/25/2010 04:16 PM EST

 

Events calendar tab
Intel Developer Forum
9/13/2010 to 9/15/2010
San Francisco
Intel

JavaOne & Oracle Develop
9/19/2010 to 9/23/2010
San Francisco
Oracle

Oracle OpenWorld
9/19/2010 to 9/23/2010
San Francisco
Oracle

ESC Boston
9/20/2010 to 9/23/2010
Boston
TechInsights

High Performance Computing Financial Markets
9/20/2010
New York City
Flagg Management