[Ofer Goren really needs no introductions, does he? He writes here more than I do, lately. Anyway, this time he shares a harrowing tale of Android OS and job insecurities of a completely different kind.] The Android OS is out for quite some time. Recently it was decided that we should bring our SIP Stack revolution to this uncharted world It was a challenging task, which only a few can take: . a new operating system, to add to the
(read more...)
By Ofer Goren | January 20th, 2010 | Filed under Development
It’s been a (long) while, but I’m finally back to continue my discussion of Dan Teasdale’s Design Lessons Learned From Rock Band. Dan brings up issues of design, re-design, software development cycles, management, communities and dealing with the unexpected that are much more universal than just game design. I discussed the One Question Principle in the previous post, and in this one, I’ll consider the second principle he discusses – the Perceptual Control Theory (PCT). The What What What? If
(read more...)
By Ran Arad | September 23rd, 2009 | Filed under Development, SDKs
Have you ever been to Japan? My experience was very strange. Everything seemed familiar at first glance, but when I tried something – walk the streets, ride the train, buy at stores, use the washrooms – I realized that nothing is as it seems and everything is different. So different it might just as well be another planet – complete with strange glyph writing, unexpected underground passages, and strange stuff for sale. Remind me to tell you about the half
(read more...)
By Ran Arad | April 7th, 2009 | Filed under Development, SDKs
[This is the first guest post in my little blog, from your good friend at RADVISION customer support: Eran Zwilling, our head of Customer Support. Did you ever wonder "Am I doing it wrong? Could I say a magic word (besides ‘please') to get that extra mile?" The answer is finally here: 'No', but also 'Yes'. No, because the Customer Support reps are already working as hard as they can for you. Yes, because the following tips and insights will
(read more...)
By guest | September 17th, 2008 | Filed under SDKs
The access architecture of an SDK refers to the types of events generated by it (synchronous, asynchronous), the way it handles API calls (blocking, non-blocking), and the way it processes events (on event, on poll). Different paradigms fit different needs. I usually divide these architectures to 4 main types: Asynchronous events, non-blocking API calls Synchronous events, blocking API calls Event queue, API calls queue Polling for events Each of these has its advantages and drawbacks, and most importantly,
(read more...)
By Ran Arad | September 3rd, 2008 | Filed under Development, SDKs
After the last post about text and binary protocols, Sagee sent me a link to Google’s protocol buffers, which is a protocol used to send structured data over the network, which also provides backwards compatibility between versions. From the announcement: “XML? No, that wouldn’t work. As nice as XML is, it isn’t going to be efficient enough for this scale. When all of your machines and network links are running at capacity, XML is an extremely expensive proposition. Not to
(read more...)
By Ran Arad | July 23rd, 2008 | Filed under Development, Interoperability, Standardization
Is developing protocol stacks and communication software any different from developing any other software? I have to develop API’s for my protocol stacks a challenge in itself and related more to user psychology than to programming. I have to check control flows all the way down to the network and back to the application. I also need to process large amounts of data and develop many platforms. I hope these tools will be as useful to you as they are
(read more...)
By Ran Arad | June 9th, 2008 | Filed under Development
There is a huge difference between compiled languages and scripting languages: the former are first entirely compiled and then executed, the latter are interpreted as they progress. I will use this terminology to discuss two types of protocols: the more common is made up of readymade messages or methods; each message type indicates a predetermined course of action. The less common type, and one I think deserves more attention, sends messages made up of many simple commands that do very
(read more...)
By Ran Arad | May 27th, 2008 | Filed under Standardization
Checking the searches that lead people to this blog revealed that they search for “Radvision INOUT”. Thus, on public demand, I will explain the super-secret-non-more-secret parameter guidelines. From RADVISION’s common type definitions: /* Some "empty" definitions that we can use for readability of the code */ #define IN #define OUT #define INOUT What this simply means is these words are replaced by nothing; they are just indications for the reader, not the compiler. I think mini-comments may be the best
(read more...)
By Ran Arad | May 8th, 2008 | Filed under SDKs
At times, I like to keep scores between Development and Customer Support (CS). If a problem is on the customer’s side, a point is awarded to development and if the problem is with our code, a point is awarded to customer support. Then there are the many special cases, for example problems with documentation (points for CS), problems with API design (more points for CS), problems fixed for another customer already (points for Development) problems which are already fixed in
(read more...)
By Ran Arad | April 14th, 2008 | Filed under SDKs
