comm patch & ssl patch

I've decided to make two separate patches, a "communication" patch to
clean up the fe-be communication (to be submitted for inclusion) and
then a separate SSL patch. this is good because, if approved for
merging, will clear up a lot of inconsistency regarding the io
communication in the backend and frontend. it also has the added
benefit of making my SSL patch less hack-ish.

I haven't heard much from you guys regarding the backend
communication, but I figure if I make a good patch that doesn't
interfere and has positive changes, what have we got to lose.

I'm considering going as far as making it more even more modular so
that it is easier for other people to take advantage of that, but I'm
not sure how anyone feels about that. First things first I guess.

btw, i'm still planning on implementing stored procedures in perl.
i'd like to gauge the relative interest of these two projects so I can
decide how to spend my time.