Just read inZania' post & he brings up a good point about interactivity.
If there is a need for fast, efficient exchange of small packets of information, an HTTP server is prolly a poor choice.
inZania also mentioned that a lot of what is needed, e.g. high scores, client records, etc. are well within the capabilities of an HTTP/SQL setup.
So, you may need to provide at least 2 types of services:
1) interactive game playing (socket level as inZania suggests)
2) admin, record keeping, email, web services, etc. (http/SQL servers)/
CF (ColdFusion) has some socket programming capability (provided by the underlying Java server). I have never used it so nothing to report there.
CF also allows you to compose, execute and get results from the OS;s CLI. Conceivably, you could write, compile and execute a game-playing daemon from within your CF app.
Done properly, the interactive game-playing would be handled by a separate module.
1. Initially, while you are designing/prototyping your app, the game-playing module could be written in CF.
2. you could prolly support some number if interactive players with this (compiled Java ByteCode) module
3. When performance needs dictate, you could migrate this module closer to the iron by recoding it. But the rest of the app remains unchanged.
Might just be the best (cheapest/fastest) way to get you where you want to be!
HTH
Dick
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