Abstract: Techniques are described for reading a plurality of data packets, which can be communicated over a network, without sacrificing the efficiency of network operation, and for reading data packets communicated over a network without unnecessary memory copies. A receive buffer of a first size, which is at least twice a maximum size of data packets in the plurality of data packets, is used. A first amount of data is read into the receive buffer and the size of a last packet contained within the first amount of data is determined. The size of an unread portion of the last read packet is determined and a second amount of data, which is equal to size of an unread portion of the last read packet, is then read into the receive buffer.

Abstract: An aspect of the present invention simplifies the implementation of custom atomic transactions. A program logic (implementing a custom atomic transaction) may request a unique transaction identifier from a programming environment. The program logic may then specify a task procedure, corresponding roll-back procedures, and the transaction identifier using an interface provided by the programming environment. The programming environment keeps track of the specified roll-back procedures. The information maintained by the programming environment may be used to execute the roll-back procedures if the atomic transaction is to be aborted. As the programming environment keeps track of the roll-back procedures to be executed, the implementation of atomic transactions may be simplified.

Abstract: An aspect of the present invention enables a user to have a custom desired experience while accessing electronic files. A digital processing system provides the user the ability to define an experience profile with experience profile containing experience attributes. The user may be provided the ability to associate an experience profile with the electronic file. The digital processing system then controls the experience attributes to create a custom defined experience. As a result, two different electronic files (accessed using a single application) may be associated with two different experience profiles. In addition, experience attributes rooted in dissimilar applications may also be included in an experience profile.

Abstract: An end system representing a database server or a database client determines whether to send data in compressed format, and sends the data in a compressed format only if it is determined to send the data in compressed format. In an embodiment implemented using software instructions, a function (set of instructions) is implemented to return one logical value to send data in compressed format and other logical value otherwise.