My proposal is to program a library (.h / .c file) which will present the programmer with abstract functions for communication over sockets. The library will handle the connections, clients and server internally and provide the programmer with an easy-to-use interface for common types of communication tasks like sending messages, transferring files, etc. The library will handle the following things internally:

• Starting and supervising running server
• Establish and administer connections to already running servers
• Maintain connections, handle loss of connection appropriate
• Handle incoming connections
• Use own application layer protocol for
  • administrative overhead
  • sending ASCII (human readable data, e.g. messages)
  • sending binary files (TODO)
    • unlimited size
    • handle file transfer
    • file transfer should not block other communication

Server functionality:

int AS_ServerIsRunning(int port);       // returns 1 if an AS_Server is running in this process on this port, otherwise 0
int AS_ServerPrintRunning();            // prints a list of all running AS_Server in this process to stdout
int AS_ServerStart(int port, int IPv);  // start ASServer at specific port
                                        // IPv can be AS_IPv4, AS_IPv6 or AS_IPunspec
int AS_ServerStop(int port);            // stop ASServer if running

Client functionality:

int AS_ClientConnect(char* host, char *port); // establish a connection to an AS_Server at [host]:port, returns connection id: cid
int AS_ClientDisconect(int conID);            // disconnects from an AS_Server previously connected with AS_ClientConnect
AS_ClientEvent_t* AS_ClientEvent(int conID);  // listen to socket and return NULL or an even structure
int AS_ClientSendMessage(int conID, int recipient, char *message);
int AS_ClientListClients(int conID);          // ask server for a list of all connected clients

In addition, a simple server/client pair using ASLib.o will demonstrate Abstract Sockets in action.