🚀 go-pugleaf

Rosinger <rosinger@optushome.com.au> wrote:
> 		String response = "";
> 		String line;
> 		while ((line = in.readLine()) != null)
> 		{
> 			response += line;
> 		}

This bit of code is horrible, by the way - use a StringBuffer.
See http://www.pobox.com/~skeet/java/string.html
 		
> 		System.out.println (response);
> 
> 		in.close();
> 		out.close();
> 		socket.close();
> 	}
> }

These close calls should be part of a finally block, so they get 
executed even if an IO exception is thrown.

Neither of these are major problems for small test code, but I thought 
I'd just raise them in case you weren't aware of them.

> Nothing too complicated, but there is a little problem: the while loop 
> keeps blocking and does NOT return null when there's nothing to read 
> from the socket.

Indeed - and that's correct. It should only return null when the socket 
has been closed (by either end).

> I find it very strange that for the mail server example, the while loop 
> does NOT return null when there's nothing to read from the socket and 
> keeps blocking, while the web server example DOES return null and 
> returns when there's nothing to read from the socket.

Nope, the web server is closing the socket in this case, hence the 
return of null.
 
> Does anyone know what the difference between the mail server and the web 
> server is? Or, how to solve this problem?

In a mail server, the protocol should tell you how much to read - eg by 
finishing with a line of just "." - but this depends on the protocol you 
want to use.

-- 
Jon Skeet - <skeet@pobox.com>
http://www.pobox.com/~skeet/
If replying to the group, please do not mail me too