Message-Id: <199602051603.KAA26374@library.wustl.edu> Date: Mon, 5 Feb 1996 09:59:30 CST From: Chris Howard <mailto:choward@IASTATE.EDU> Subject: Re: Loose Ends To: Multiple recipients of list WEBCAT-L <mailto:WEBCAT-L@WUVMD.WUSTL.EDU>
> The first posting to WebCat-L raised the issue of how vendors would
> license their web gateway products. At least two methods came
> forward: 1) pricing according to the number of concurrent "sessions"
> allowed, and 2) pricing according to the number of volumes in the
> client library's collection (analogous to software companies charging
> on the basis of the size of a central processor). A number of people
> pointed out that the problem with the first approach is that the inherent
> "statelessness" or "connectionlessness" of the HTTP protocol means
> there is no "session".
I don't think calling HTTP "connectionless" is quite right. You can count/limit the number of simultaneous HTTP connections to a server. There is a "session" of sorts: the client opens a connection and asks for a url; the server sends it; the connection is closed. You can think of it as very quick, anonymous file transfer.
When a browser asks for a CGI URL (e.g. the connection to our z39.50 catalog service), it just sits and waits for the server to send back "stuff". So in that case the connection lasts a lot longer (a few seconds).
If you have a product that it licensed by simultaneous connections, it is obviously more efficent to have the requests serviced as fast as possible. The HTTP sessions just get the job done and get out, unlike telnet or z39.50 sessions that are controlled directly by a browsing human who sits and ponders every screen (or wanders away without signing off).
-- Chris Howard mailto:choward@iastate.edu (515) 294-6521 Iowa State University Library -- Automated Systems Division