Best language for socket programming

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C

cryptid

Journeyman
i need to learn socket programming to build simple client/server application for linux and windows platforms please suggest a language whose learning curve is easy... i check for tuts on C and C++ and i found it pretty hard to follow i guess i will need help was planning to take up some classes and i also herd about Ruby which is a cross platform interpreted language and i herd there are not much hasssels when it comes down to socket programming...

i need to learn a language which will give me access to pretty low level stuff so that in futher i can develop more powerfull applications ..
 
QwertyManiac

QwertyManiac

Commander in Chief
You can try out Ruby or Python (Or the likes - PERL/PHP)

But by the looks of your question, you are shying away from actually learning things before you attempt to implement, this will not get you anywhere if true.

I have little idea about network programming but I've written a basic application performing the client/server process in Python. You can read the below to valuate if the abstraction provided by Python is enough for your needs or not. (I'm using the default socket module provided by Python)

The server snippet:
Code: 
import socket

address, buff = ("localhost", 21000), 2048

Sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_DGRAM)
Sock.bind(address)

print "SERVER\n------\n"

while True:
    
    data, address = Sock.recvfrom(buff)
    if not data:
        print "Client stopped/exited."
        break
    else:
        print "Recieved the message:", data

Sock.close()
The Client snippet:
Code: 
import socket

address = ("localhost", 21000)

Sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_DGRAM)

print "CLIENT\n------\n"

while True:
    data = raw_input("Enter a message: ")
    if not data:
        Sock.sendto("", address)
        break
    else:
        if Sock.sendto(data, address):
            print "Sent message:", data, "to", address[0], "at port", address[1]
        else:
            print "Could not send the message. Retry."

Sock.close()
Input (Client side) [Example]:
Code: 
CLIENT
------

Enter a message: hello
Sent message: hello to localhost at port 21000
Enter a message: world
Sent message: world to localhost at port 21000
Output (Server side) [Example]:
Code: 
SERVER
------

Recieved the message: hello
Recieved the message: world
In Colleges they usually teach network programming in C/C++. You get more direct access to all the low-level stuff in those languages.
 
OP
C

cryptid

Journeyman
seems pretty nice.... the thing is that C/C++ network programming is not coverd in out engg syllabus anyways i've been reading up on a some ebooks i got my hands on so it make take me some more time to decide on which language i should be going with... mean while if u guys get anymore interesting finds let me know...
 
dheeraj_kumar

dheeraj_kumar

Legen-wait for it-dary!
I recommend WinSock for windows, and I'm not a penguin so dunno abt linux. WinSOck is not exactly easy to learn but its very flexible and powerful. You can go the WinAPI way or the highly abstracted .NET way.
 
Faun

Faun

Wahahaha~!
Staff member
java is the way if u want to start with implementation without going beneath the abstraction.

I remember I wrote a threaded multi messenger on LAN using JAVA. It was fun, included some cool features too. but duh I always abandon my projects at 80% :( dunno but thats me or i set high standards
 
ilugd

ilugd

Beware of the innocent
t159. you remind me of the saying the last 20% of the project takes up 80% of hte time. you just didn't have the patience to stick to it for the 80%. :p. just a thought.
well c is good enough for network programming. but the thing is that if you want to learn network programming, you need to be comfortable in the language first, otherwise you will be verrrry confused. any language can be used imho.
 
Faun

Faun

Wahahaha~!
Staff member
^^I meant that for extra features that I wished to add :) But somehow never went back to add stars to complete that 20% . No one asked me to add those features and even the ones that i added. But it was me all the time working alone, though later on changed the stance to a lazy one.
 
C

chandru.in

In the zone
I'd go with T159's suggestion. Java is very simple and yet pretty powerful in handling TCP/IP and UDP sockets. No platform dependence (unlike Winsock or UNIX sockets) as it is pure TCP. Also, most network programming will need multi-threading and Java's multi-threading capabilities are first-class.

I'm not very comfortable with Python. But if I understand it right, a Java version of the server code given by QwertyManiac would be like this.
Code: 
package demo;

import java.io.*;
import java.net.*;

public class SocketServer {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        try {
            ServerSocket serverSocket = new ServerSocket(21000);
            Socket connectedSocket = serverSocket.accept();

            BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(
                    connectedSocket.getInputStream()));
            String line;
            while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
                System.out.println("Received the message: " + line);
            }
            System.out.println("Client stopped/exited");
        } catch (Exception e) {
            System.out.println("Communication Error!");
        }
    }
}

The client code would look like this.

Code: 
package demo;

import java.io.*;
import java.net.*;

public class SocketClient {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        try {
            Socket socket = new Socket("localhost", 21000);
            PrintWriter writer = new PrintWriter(socket.getOutputStream(), true);
            BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(
                    System.in));

            while (true) {
                System.out.print("Enter message: ");
                String message = reader.readLine();
                writer.println(message);
                System.out.println("Sent message: " + message + " to "
                        + socket.getRemoteSocketAddress() + " at port "
                        + socket.getPort());
            }
        } catch (Exception e) {
            System.out.println("Communication Error!");
        }
    }
}
 
Last edited:
Sykora

Sykora

I see right through you.
/me hates java on principle.

Learn the details in C/C++, then actually use it in python.
 
Garbage

Garbage

God of Mistakes...
+1 more for Java...

BTW, whats SWT ray|raven ?? Do u mean AWT ?? And if it is AWT, then instead of that, use Swing which is more advanced ! :p
 
C

chandru.in

In the zone
Garbage said:
+1 more for Java...

BTW, whats SWT ray|raven ?? Do u mean AWT ?? And if it is AWT, then instead of that, use Swing which is more advanced ! :p
Click to expand...

SWT stands for Standard Widget Toolkit. It is more like a balance between AWT and Swing.

AWT - Fully peer based rendering.
Swing - Fully Java based rendering.
SWT - Peer based rendering when possible, if not uses Java based rendering.

It is a separate library and does not form part of the standard Java runtime. Eclipse is developed using SWT. There is one catch in using SWT. You need to create separate packages of your application for each platform with the corresponding platform's SWT implementation.

Swing's native look and feel is improving (not as perfect as SWT). It is also a Java spec standard and fully cross-platform. So unless perfect native look is of very high importance for the application, I'd recommend using Swing with the platform's native look and feel at runtime.

Anyway since the topic is about socket programming only, I dunno the exact GUI requirements of the OP.

Sykora said:
/me hates java on principle.

Learn the details in C/C++, then actually use it in python.
Click to expand...

For TCP/IP and UDP, i don't see Java hiding any important detail. But if you want to use UNIX sockets or Winsock C/C++ is the way to go. But then TCP/IP is pretty much standardised for modern network programming.

That said Qt (QSocket) does a good job at abstracting TCP/IP stack for C++. I dunno about GTK so can't comment on that.
 
Last edited:
C

chandru.in

In the zone
QwertyManiac said:
Oh noes, its turning into a language war!

Best way: Learn everything, program in anything. :p
Click to expand...
Ooops!! No never meant to turn it into one. I still feel it is just a healthy debate of pros and cons. I love all languages discussed here so far (though I'm not very comfortable with Python).

If I'm a reason for this to turn into a useless war, I'm sorry. :(
 
Faun

Faun

Wahahaha~!
Staff member
^^
may be you need comments and documentation too, so the other developer know the sh!t you meant and wrote
 
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