Chapter 11. TclHttpd in Client-Server Applications

By now we have learned a lot about network communication, and HTTP in particular, along with setting up TclHttpd for providing files and responding to requests from Tcl. We also learned how Tcl uses VFS to provide both standalone applications and package multiple files, into a single deliverable file we can later on use. Now, we'll put this knowledge into practice and create a sample client-server application that uses these technologies.

Throughout this chapter, we'll create a simple application that consists of a client and server. The application will work over HTTP and will allow multiple clients to communicate with a single server. It will also offer a comm interface on the server to invoke commands on remote clients. We'll start off by creating a minimal client and server, which will be a good starting point for both understanding the model and its upsides and downsides. It will have a mechanism for running Tcl command a on client and...