Service Discovery in Mira
It’s been a while, so here’s a short update on a great new feature which was recently started by Alan (clsk).
Our initial idea for Mira was that it would function based on a Centric model: a group of Clients would connect to a central Server and perform all communications through this Server (apart from some Peer-to-Peer communications subsequently initiated between the Clients). This model is excellent for office environments, but it’s not very flexible in small networks, like at home: how many people have the option of setting up a standalone server to run Mira Server 24/7?
That’s right: not many! So, Alan has come up with an alternative. He is working on a zero-configuration, instant set-up collaboration system which would use the new Distributed model. All you would have to do to collaborate in a Workplace is to start a Mira Client on a network, create a Distributed Workplace and then invite the other Clients on the network. The best part is that there is absolutely no need to set up a Server because the Clients will be able to communicate directly to each other (without any tinkering!) using service discovery, via Zeroconf. A nice touch, don’t you think?
It’s not quite ready yet, but here’s a preview of the service discovery feature (take a look at the ‘Neighbors’ tab on the right):
For more information, check out the Distributed Network Layer blueprint and Alan’s blog post: Mira connects to peers on LAN. You can also see the code for yourself in our network-protocol branch on Launchpad.