The jGCS library enables generic Group Communication with a simple interface.
In addition to this, jGCS implements a new concept for providing a group communication service. Using the inversion of control pattern, this service provides a separation of configuration and use while promoting modularity. Applications can use a common API that can be implemented using different solutions, with the solution used by an application defined at configuration time.
This service supports key features such as data and membership support, peer groups and multicast groups, compatibility from IP Multicast to VSC, autonomy for membership services, and high concurrency with low latency and latency hiding, enabling support for optimistic deliveries and semantic protocols. Moreover, the container-managed concurrency feature enables an application to decide the thread policy to receive messages, which can be either blocking or concurrent non-blocking.
It is important to note that the current jGCS release is its first release (0.1), and the API may not be stable. Therefore, any suggestions to improve the API are welcome and can be forwarded to the development team. This release includes improvements such as migrating to SVN and hosting on SF.net, fixing some minor issues, and adding tags to help UML relations between interfaces.
Overall, jGCS is a promising tool for applications that require robust Group Communication capabilities, modularity, and a common interface to several existing toolkits with diverse APIs.
Version 0.6.1: N/A