BoostSocket/SocketReactor

SocketReactor

Description and design of the socket reactor interface.

The SocketReactor is a low level event dispatching scheme to use together with sockets.

For more information on the reactor pattern. See Pattern Oriented Software Architecture by Schmidt et al. (see http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/POSA/)

 event_mask
 {
  read = 1 << 0,
  connect = 1 << 0, // select cant't detect difference between readability and connection
  write = 1 << 1,
  accept= 1 << 1,  // select cant't detect difference between writeability and accept
  error = 1 << 2
 };

 // attach SocketBase to this reactor should we take socket_t instead?
 // throw if socket already attached? or replace callback
 void attach(SocketBase& socket, boost::function<void (SocketBase& socket, event_mask)> callback, event_mask mask);
 // detach SocketBase from this reactor
 void detach(SocketBase& socket);

 // add a timer callback (returning a new duration when to fire again or duration = 0 if not to fire again)
 bool set_timer(time_duration_t fireTime, boost::function<time_duration_t ()>);
 // dispatch an event returns true if event is dispatched and false on timeout.
 bool dispatch(time_duration_t duration);

Do we need to close a reactor and can these operations be implemented safely.

 // perform asynchrounous close.
 void close();
 // join this reactor and wait for close to finish
 void join();

How should destruction be handled and defined?