JavaBeans Unleashed

Network Programming

Network programming has always been a challenge for programmers. Usually a program on a client computer must contact a server and access a database on the server. Thinking back to 1988 when I wrote my first network application that shared data among computers on a Novell network gives me a large headache. Every single step of the process required well-planned, difficult-to-write-and-debug, complicated code.

In the early days, programs that shared data over a network had to use some sort of protocol over which packets of data were sent. Within the packets of data were contained directive codes and data. The directive codes told the receiving program how to handle any data that was contained in the packet, and the data provided ...