[Xitami] ProtoNova v1.0 Released! (And a XiFusion note)

[Thomas J. Hruska]

At 07:33 PM 7/31/2002 +0200, Pieter Hintjens writeth:
>"Thomas J. Hruska" <shinelight@shininglightpro.com> wrote:
>
>> Due to the fact that many people here using the Xitami webserver are
>> looking for alternatives to Xitami since it no longer is a supported
>> web server (by the parent company iMatix), Shining Light Productions
>> has written a brand new web server called ProtoNova...
>
>Thomas is most welcome to announce ProtoNova on this list, although 
>any extended discussion should probably move to a dedicated list. :)

There is a dedicated list for ProtoNova already set up.  Further discussion
should probably move there, if for no other reason to allow the discussions
to be archived in one location.

>Personally I welcome this announcement.  It offers Xitami users a 
>choice, which is always good, and it offers Xitami some competition, 
>which is good in a world where most web servers are too large and too 
>complex for normal people.

Then there are those of us who are crazy and are like me and go and write a
web server...  However, such people are few and far between and, besides,
being "normal" is relative anyway.  :P

>I'm curious as to whether Thomas used any Xitami code in the server, 
>or whether 'brand new' means written from scratch.  Thomas, you might 

Written from scratch.  For the record, I did not use any code from Xitami
or look at it during development.  I did use the specification on LRWP
found in Xitami to develop the LRWP remote module.  Since only the LRWP
specification was used and no source code, there should be no legal issues
(just in case iMatix was considering a lawsuit).  Currently only LRWP 1.0
is supported (via the LRWP remote module), but as I told the Sokrates team,
LRWP 2.0 support is only 5-10 additional lines of code and LRWP 2.0 should
be fully functional by ProtoNova v1.1.

>want to explain your decision to start something new rather than add 
>or improve the existing body of code.  Just for interest.  Also, is 
>your server open source, or closed?

ProtoNova is a closed source web server designed to accomplish several goals:

1)  Demonstrate that the Unified RFC Protocol is a viable communication
protocol to the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) and get it accepted
for standards track development.  This indirectly dealt with the CGI DoS
issue found in Xitami since CGIs are a side-effect of ProtoNova rather than
a part of it.
2)  Provide an alternative to Xitami users (as you already pointed out).
3)  Solidify the LibLink code base (the core library operating behind the
scenes...all application code is 100% portable once LibLink is ported to
another platform - LibLink is currently weighing in around 31,000+ lines of
very stable, modular C code).
4)  Simplify the application code base.  ProtoNova is only about 5000 lines
of C code in one easy to maintain file (each remote module is about 1000
lines of code).
5)  Create several new innovations such as database logs (instead of log
files).
6)  Simplify server configuration (uses a tree-style INI format).
7)  Introduce HTTP/1.1 compliance that supports chunked transfer-encoding.
8)  Provide basic clustering, load-balancing, and server farm support while
maintaining simplicity.
9)  Add SSL/TLS support.
10)  Create symbolic links for a server running in the Windows environment.
And many more...

When comparing ProtoNova to Xitami, it should be compared with Xitami/Pro.
Both have SSL/TLS support, a pricetag, and are closed source.  Xitami is
different in that it has none of those three major things in common with
ProtoNova or Xitami/Pro.

Basically, I performed an analysis of Xitami and determined that it would
be better to start from scratch than to modify the source due to the fact I
had so many changes I wanted to make.  A _VERY_ detailed Microsoft Excel
comparison chart of several different servers can be found in the ProtoNova
web server 'httproot\docs' directory (I can make this available if enough
people want to see it).

>Then, what do you mean by 'a fraction of the price'?  Xitami/Pro is 
>not expensive at $99.  Far too cheap, really, since it does not even 
>start to pay its way.  What does ProtoNova cost?

$35 for Standard Edition.  $75 for Enterprise Edition.  $300 for Custom
Edition.  All three editions are described in detail on the Shining Light
Productions website.

You have probably heard that "a fast nickel is better than a slow
dime"...I'm hoping to make an ultra-fast penny.

As to the issue of money, I really don't like to charge money for my
products.  However, when a product takes a long time to develop, I need to
get something back for it...*especially* if there is to be PFR support
(Priority Feature Requests - 24-72 hour turnaround times/product
releases/product updates - only Custom Edition users can issue PFRs) and FR
support (Feature Requests - usually 3-4 weeks, but can vary - owners of any
Edition can issue FRs).  Given that information, the product is practically
free.

Basically, as you can probably tell, the cost of the product is to just
cover support for it.  The fact it is so cheap is because of the
distribution system used (without the distribution system, it would be too
costly for end users for Shining Light Productions to even consider
developing it).  I'm not sure how iMatix distributes Xitami/Pro since I
haven't purchased it, but I would be interested in knowing how your system
works and I might be able to provide a few pointers to allow you to reduce
the price (or at least make it more cost-effective).

Personally, I think Xitami is still a very good web server and has
excellent potential to become really good, but as you said, time is lacking
to develop it and I also did not want to mess around with code that has
been in existence since 1991(? - at least iMatix has been around that
long).  I also needed to 

Also, I want you to know that you may mention/point users to the CertGen
Project for SSL certificate generation for Xitami/Pro.  I was probably not
very clear in my original e-mail, but certificates generated by the CertGen
Project will work with Xitami/Pro (https://www.2cah.com/ verifies this fact
- the public root certificate can be installed from
http://www.shininglightpro.com/index.php?treeloc=11), Apache (mod_ssl),
and, of course, ProtoNova.  It is a free service that I am providing
(except for Type 1 Authentication certificates) and simplifies the SSL
certificate generation process to filling in a form with information,
clicking 'submit', and downloading and extracting the generated certificate
set.  Having Xitami/Pro users use the CertGen Project will simplify both
your life and your users' lives.

Hope this helps!


          Thomas J. Hruska -- shinelight@shininglightpro.com
Shining Light Productions -- "Meeting the needs of fellow programmers"
                  http://www.shininglightpro.com/