[Isolate-interest] Shared Memory ?

[Curt Cox]

Shared memory support is a frequent question and would merit some space in a
FAQ.

Matthias,

Do you have any use cases that you would like to share?  Looking at the
current Link API, it would seem pretty trivial to create Input/OutputStream
wrappers for it.  From there, it is easy to create
Data/Object/Input/OutputStreamS and XMLEncoder/DecoderS. 

This is one reason why I am anxiously awaiting the TCK and RI.  Once
everything is available, real gaps in the API will be easy to spot buy
looking at the helper classes and methods everyone is writing.  An RMI
Registry that wraps a set of Links seems like a pretty generally useful
thing to me.  Time and experience will tell.  

Do you have more info and a link for "something like that" from Gemstone?

Off hand, I would lobby against any API that explicitly relies on shared
memory, because many possible isolate implementations will have no notion of
shared memory.  For those that do, the exact implementation of shared memory
could vary wildly based upon hardware and operating system.

What are the limitations involved in using MappedByteBufferS in multiple
isolates to share memory.  Is there a problem with this technique, or you
just want a mechanism that doesn't depend on NIO? 

- Curt