Re:It's time to get the Posix elephant off our necks
by eqvinox on Thursday February 23, 2023 @01:45AM
(#34907568)
> Sockets, which are designed for IP networking
Sockets aren't designed for IP networking. They date back to a time when it wasn't even clear TCP/IP would win vs. IPX/SPX. Or DECnet. AF_UNIX sockets have things that IP sockets can't even dream of doing (the very poorly named SCM_RIGHTS). And sockets don't really cover IP networking all that well, e.g. MPTCP and SCTP shenanigans to get multi-address & multi-stream connections.
That said, both sockets and mmap are low-level APIs. A higher level "user/developer centric" API indeed looks different.
Sockets aren't designed for IP networking. They date back to a time when it wasn't even clear TCP/IP would win vs. IPX/SPX. Or DECnet. AF_UNIX sockets have things that IP sockets can't even dream of doing (the very poorly named SCM_RIGHTS). And sockets don't really cover IP networking all that well, e.g. MPTCP and SCTP shenanigans to get multi-address & multi-stream connections.
That said, both sockets and mmap are low-level APIs. A higher level "user/developer centric" API indeed looks different.