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Re: Re: raw TCP/IP socket communication in mathematica

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg17656] Re: [mg17619] Re: raw TCP/IP socket communication in mathematica
• From: "Mitja Lakner" <mlakner at fagg.uni-lj.si>
• Date: Fri, 21 May 1999 03:37:41 -0400
• References: <Pine.GSU.4.05.9905041712540.21049-100000@flip.eecs.umich.edu> <7grica$e6h@smc.vnet.net> <199905180645.CAA20718@smc.vnet.net.>
• Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

Is there interface to Win sockets using mathlink?
(MSVC 6.0)

Mitja Lakner
----- Original Message -----
From: Daniel Reeves <dreeves at flip.eecs.umich.edu>
To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
Subject: [mg17656] [mg17619] Re: raw TCP/IP socket communication in mathematica


>
> I took paulh at wolfram's advice, and implented an interface to unix sockets
> using mathlink.
>
> http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/dreeves/misc/math-sockets/
>
> It includes a sample notebook that grabs an arbitrary webpage from the
> internet and spits out the contents.  About 4 lines ("link to socket
> library", "connect to web site", "ask for web page", "receive response").
>
> I still think raw TCP/IP communication should be part of the kernel.  To
> Jens's comment that it can't be because his windows box can't do it, I
> have 2 responses:  1, his machine would fail to create any link to a
> remote machine, "Raw" or otherwise.  2, Mathematica does not take a lowest
> common denominator approach to operating system functionality, eg, piping
> to external programs is supported in Mathematica even though it won't work
> on some operating systems.
>
> So again I'd like to urge Wolfram developers to consider including this
> functionality in the kernel.  I'd like to see Mathematica become the
> language of choice for things like "intelligent internet agents" (like
> bidding agents for online auctions) and not having built-in ability to
> send and receive data over the internet is a big enough hurdle to prevent
> that from happening.  Compiling/porting/etc something like what I've done
> is a huge headache.  But inside the kernel, this problem is already solved
> -- there just needs to be an option to turn off enforcement of the
> structured, mathlink-packet-based communication and use raw strings
> instead.
>
> PS: When I first posted my message about my MASH thing, I accidentally
> didn't have the source code (mash.c) visible.  It's now there at
> http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/dreeves/misc/mash/
>
> Thanks,
> Daniel
>
> --    --    --    --    --    --    --    --    --    --    --    --
> Daniel Reeves               http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/dreeves/
>
> "'Artificial Intelligence' ceases to be 'intelligent' as soon as it's
> actually implemented."  -- Uluc Saranli
>
> On 6 May 1999, P.J. Hinton wrote:
>
> > On Tue, 4 May 1999, Daniel Reeves wrote:
> >
> > > I think the ability to send and retrieve arbitrary strings over TCP
> > > sockets is very important.  The specific application I have in mind is
> > > creating bidding agents that participate in an online auction (part of
my
> > > research on artificial intelligence for ecommerce).  This type
> > > of application is becoming more and more common and I think it's
important
> > > that Mathematica support communication with programs other than
mathlink
> > > compatible ones.  Bots that gather data on the web is another example
of
> > > why this would be necessary.
> > >
> > > It should be straightforward to implement this in the kernel by having
an
> > > option for LinkConnect that says "Raw".  Then all LinkWrite's and
> > > LinkRead's would send and receive plain strings.
> >
> > Alternatively, you could build an installable MathLink binary that
defines
> > a top-level interface to your operating system's native socket API.
That
> > would be a highly reusable component that could be launched whenver
> > needed.
> >
> > Below is an example of a top-level interface to the Unix system call
> > uname(). You could create a MathLink template like this:
> >
> > :Begin:
> > :Function: myuname
> > :Pattern: SystemInformation[]
> > :Arguments: {Null}
> > :ArgumentTypes: Manual
> > :ReturnType: Manual
> > :End:
> >
> > and then the C code would look something like this:
> >
> > #include <sys/utsname.h>
> > #include "mathlink.h"
> >
> > void myuname(void);
> >
> > void myuname(){
> >   struct utsname unamedata;
> >   int retval;
> >
> >   retval = uname(&unamedata);
> >
> >   if(retval == 0){
> >     MLPutFunction(stdlink, "List", 6);
> >     MLPutString(stdlink, unamedata.sysname);
> >     MLPutString(stdlink, unamedata.nodename);
> >     MLPutString(stdlink, unamedata.release);
> >     MLPutString(stdlink, unamedata.version);
> >     MLPutString(stdlink, unamedata.machine);
> >     MLPutString(stdlink, unamedata.domainname);
> >    }
> >   else{
> >     MLPutSymbol(stdlink, "$Failed");
> >    }
> >
> >    return;
> > }
> >
> > int main(int argc, char *argv[]){
> >   return MLMain(argc, argv);
> > }
> >
> > I can now get the result of uname from my installed function.
> >
> > In[1]:= Install["myuname`"]
> >
> > Out[1]= LinkObject['./myuname.exe', 1, 1]
> >
> > In[2]:= LinkPatterns[%1]
> >
> > Out[2]= {SystemInformation[]}
> >
> > In[3]:= SystemInformation[]
> >
> > Out[3]= {Linux, monon, 2.0.0, #1 Mon Jun 10 21:11:56 CDT 1996, i586,
> > (none)}
> >
> > --
> > P.J. Hinton
> > Mathematica Programming Group paulh at wolfram.com
> > Wolfram Research, Inc. http://www.wolfram.com/~paulh/
> >
> >
>

• References:
  • Re: raw TCP/IP socket communication in mathematica
    • From: dreeves@flip.eecs.umich.edu (Daniel Reeves)