project goals

[Mark Castillo <ma...@webFreak.com>]

Hi all,

Ok. After reading through some of the sources some questions came to mind.
What are some of the specific goals of the project regarding robustness,
performance, and security? At what point can we say that it is robust
enough? fast enough? secure enough?

Are there some requirements that the server should be able to run for weeks
without crashing? Throughput/capacity goals? Is Tomcat meant to be used by
web hosting services and be able to host many servlet applications by many
customers in a safe manner? Banking applications?

--
Mark Castillo
markc@webFreak.com
http://www.webFreak.com

Re: project goals

[Justin Erenkrantz <je...@ebuilt.com>]

On Sun, Aug 19, 2001 at 11:16:52AM -0700, Mark Castillo wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> Ok. After reading through some of the sources some questions came to mind.
> What are some of the specific goals of the project regarding robustness,
> performance, and security? At what point can we say that it is robust
> enough? fast enough? secure enough?

[ Take these $.02 from someone who isn't even a Tomcat committer.  These
  are my thoughts on your question.  PMCers may have defined goals. ]

Typically, Apache projects follow the goal of "correctness first,
performance second."  Since Tomcat is the reference implementation of 
Servlets/JSP, it should focus on implementing all aspects of the spec
correctly.  I believe that if the implementation is correct (provided
you have a solid spec - which I believe is the case here), it goes a 
long way towards providing robustness and security.

You, as the user (or auditor), must place your own judgments on whether
Tomcat is robust enough, fast enough, or even secure enough.  We do not
know your goals.  However, I believe that part of the beauty of Open 
Source is that if it doesn't meet your requirements, you can help out 
and contribute to the project so that it does meet your needs properly.  
That's why you have the source.  Enjoy.  -- justin