This page is a comparison of various portable C++ socket libraries against Chops Net IP, from the primary author (Cliff Green). This comparison offers evaluations that are both subjective and objective.

The main criteria includes:

• Portable C++, compilable on multiple compilers and operating system platforms
• General purpose, can interface with any protocol (does not impose its own wire protocol)
• Supports both binary and text protocols
• Has both TCP connector and TCP acceptor support
• Allows socket options to be queried and modified

The secondary criteria includes:

• UDP unicast and multicast support
• Provides an OS (or lower level) socket interface
• Highly scalable
• Bi-directional data flow

Asio and C++ Networking Standardization

Asio provides the foundation and underlying asynchronous model for Chops Net IP. C++ standardization efforts for networking have been ongoing for years (over a decade), with a major part of the effort working on std::execution (which covers many areas besides networking). If a C++ networking standard becomes official, Chops Net IP and Asio will likely change accordingly.

ACE

ACE is available at http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/ACE.html.

ACE is the "granddaddy" of portable C++ networking libraries, in my personal experience. It is where I learned about reactor and proactor designs, and where the seminal ideas for the Chops Net IP abstractions were formed. Some of the strengths of ACE include:

• Support for many different compilers and platforms.
• Maturity and a very well tested implementation.
• Scalability and performance in many environments.
• Reactor and proactor implementions, allowing multiple models of application usage.

Some of the disadvantages:

• The C++ API and implementation are old (pre C++ 11) with many design constraints for old C++ and compiler dialects.
• The level of abstraction is similar to the Asio and C++ Networking TS compared to a higher level of abstraction in Chops Net IP.
• ACE has many classes and functions that are no longer needed in modern C++.
• Configuring and building ACE is non-trivial.