Electrolysis/Meetings/2009-05-15

IPC hookup and protocol meetings notes:

bent:

• there is a repo: http://hg.mozilla.org/users/bturner_mozilla.com/libchromiumipc
• chromium base and IPC libraries building
• two little static libraries
• didn't have to hack the base library at all
• did have to hack their chrome/IPC library to remove references to the network and webkit headers/structures
• have a glue library which hooks Mozilla up with the IPC layer
  • basic message loop/pump
  • browser builds and runs with the new message loop!

Unit-testing:

• Chromium has unit tests already for their code
• We could export the entire Chromium testing framework... do we really need to?

Summary:

• Not quite ready for parallel hacking of Linux, etc
• probably 2-3 days more work

Protocol (cjones):

see IPC Protocols

random notes:

• protocols are between two actors only
• definitely want protocols to be asymmetric, but perhaps "server" and "client" are not the best terms
• PDL types: use basic types plus allow people to declare native types with traits-based serializers

Implementation of plugins is not dependent on the protocol layer:

• write message processors now based on the Chromium IPC code
• stick the protocol layer in later to enforce additional guarantees