[Twisted-Python] "Ports" vs. "Listeners"

[Glyph Lefkowitz]

Here I am, responding to a message on the mailing list that I was too busy
to respond to in chat.  Those of you reluctant to use the mailing list,
take note :)

On Mon, 30 Jul 2001, Chris Armstrong wrote:

> I really do not like that we call our "servers" "Ports". I think a
> much better term would be "Listener". I've talked to glyph before
> about this, and he's usually been too busy to discuss it with me (at
> least, that's what *he* says...), so here it is on the list. What's
> wrong with using "Listener"?

Well, "listener" seems equally vague to me :), and in questions like this
the status quo wins by default.

> A lot of people get confused by the term "Port". When they think
> "Port", they don't necessarily think of "something that sits on a
> port, and listens for incoming connections". That's just how I
> understand it. Another argument against Port is that it's not only for
> "waiting for incoming connections" -- clients also allocate ports when
> they connect to remote hosts. So, even technically, Port is an
> inaccurate term for this class. You might find other technical details
> that make "Listener" slightly inaccurate, but it still just Makes
> Sense to most people (I'm guessing -- DavidC_, after me using the word
> "Port", and explaining that I'd rather prefer "listener", told me he
> would've immediately understood what I was talking about if I had used
> that term from the beginning).

I'd be interested to hear more feedback on this.  Do folks generally think
that "listener" makes more sense than "port"?

> So, it should just be known that I am vehemently against using "Port"
> for this class. If you can come up with something better than Listener
> (and that also *makes sense* without having it explained to me first),
> then that's great.

"ServerSocket" probably makes the most sense... but then it would make
sense to change everything around to sound more like the java.net
classnames.  I've not really been happy with the classnames in
twisted.internet, so I encourage further debate...


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