<html>
<head>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 10 (filtered)">
<style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:PMingLiU;
panose-1:2 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:"\@PMingLiU";
panose-1:2 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{color:purple;
text-decoration:underline;}
span.EmailStyle17
{font-family:Arial;
color:windowtext;}
@page Section1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;}
div.Section1
{page:Section1;}
/* List Definitions */
ol
{margin-bottom:0in;}
ul
{margin-bottom:0in;}
-->
</style>
</head>
<body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple>
<div class=Section1>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Hello,</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>My group has been using spread for the basis for a
distributed system to handle air traffic information for the past 2 years. I
helped architect this new system which replaces an old embedded system using a
real time operating system with a Linux cluster. The new architecture relies heavily
on spread so that the system can be broken up into tiny applications sending
messages to one another rather than the single monolithic multithreaded application
approach. This legacy system has been in place since 1991 and handles nearly
80% of the world’s commercial air to ground traffic. The system new system
we are building is slowing moving functionality away from this system to a new
distributed model using a cluster of Linux systems.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>I have been a developer of system level software for over 15
years and have worked on real time, satellite communication software and
telephony. In that time I have yet to see anything quite like spread, it’s
truly a great product. After using spread now for over 2 years I have a few
ideas for enhancements that would make your product better, they are also on
the wish list for our organization. Here are a few suggestions:</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>1)<font size=1
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></font></span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>An API to allow more visibility into the spread daemon
to provide the following</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:1.0in;text-indent:-.25in'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>a.<font size=1
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></font></span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Utilization and members stats for each group, or all
groups</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:1.0in;text-indent:-.25in'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>b.<font size=1
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></font></span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Number of messages and bytes latent within a group or
all groups</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:1.5in;text-indent:-1.5in'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><font size=1
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></font>i.<font size=1 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></font></span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>An alarm mechanism so that a user specified message
is sent to a group if set limits for utilization are reached (to detect stuck
applications)</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>2)<font size=1
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></font></span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>A better interface for SP_recv using structure
instead of 9 parameters, it could be called SP_receive for backwards compatibility
to SP_Recv can be maintained. </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>3)<font size=1
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></font></span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Clean up the source code using Doxygen for comments.
Also add comments to the source code :)</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>BTW: Perhaps our group would be interested in training so we
can use the more advanced features of spread. </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Cheers,</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Dave Schere</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>