Why look at NetKernel?

The Internet today consists of innumerable resources each referenceable by a unique URI over one of the many established protocols such as http,https,ftp,pop,smtp,imap, file,telnet. Often these resources are typed by MIME and the trend is for them to be active, that is they don't just serve static content but allow interaction.

Imagine a system abstraction where all resources whether local or otherwise were referenced by URI and typed by MIME. Resources could be accessed, manipulated or served over any registered protocol providing seamless integration with the larger Internet.

Now take the abstraction further. Imagine any processing of resources as transformations and those derived results being a resource in their own right, each having a unique URI and type.

Because every resource is informally and uniquely addressable in a given context it is possible to imagine a caching model where every resource can be cached on merit (based on size, cost of creation and resusability.) Every derived resource is invalidated if any of its dependencies are invalidated. Automatic elimination of redundant computation is achieved with a corresponding increase in performance.

Resources have MIME types but in order to use them programmatically different in-memory representations are often needed. An example is XML (DOM,SAX,unparsed) Different transforms may require different representations. Imagine an abstraction that can allow transrepresentation of in-memory representations transparently.

Imagine deploying applications which have their own configurable addressable URI space and separate publicly exported URI address space and where multiple modularized components and their distinct versions may coexist.

Imagine this abstraction implemented in such a manner as to consist of 100Kb of code and run in a memory footprint of less than 1Mb yet scalable to multiprocessor systems and built to the highest quality standards proven stable and scalable over billions of transactions and hundreds of concurrent requests.

This abstraction is realised in 1060 NetKernel

Over this core abstraction imagine a functionality set that provides access to many common Internet protocols and in-memory representations of many common Internet data-types, the most important for the future being XML. Imagine all common XML technologies being fitted into the abstraction so as to provide the largest and easiest to use XML playground ever.

Interested? Download 1060 NetKernel v2.0 Salisbury Release.