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+in hilbert os, a "socket" is a two-way byte-wise communication construct. each
+socket has two ends, which can be either open or closed. each process has a
+number of handles to sockets. sockets can be created in one of two ways: either
+creating a private socket or connecting to a socket listener.
+
+private sockets:
+  a private socket is created with the "create private socket" system call. the
+  process creating the socket gets both ends of the socket.
+
+socket listeners:
+  a socket listener is created with the "create socket listener" system call.
+  an id string is passed to that system call and remains associated with the
+  listener throughout its lifetime. only one socket listener may have a given
+  id at once. while a socket listener exists, the owner of the listener can
+  call the "accept socket connection" system call, and any process can call the
+  "connect to socket" system call with that id passed. each of these system
+  calls blocks until the other occurs, at which point a socket is created with
+  the two process as its endpoints, and then both system calls return. the
+  listener remains alive after the socket is created, and can be used to create
+  more sockets until stopped with the "stop socket listener" system call.
+
+when a process is created, an end of a socket can be "gifted" to that process.
+when that happens, the end remains open, and is now accessible by the giftee
+and not by the gifter.
+
+when either end of a socket is closed, the other end of the socket remains
+valid, and can be read from until empty. when both ends of a socket are closed,
+the socket disappears.