Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!decwrl!bacchus.pa.dec.com!shlump.nac.dec.com!mountn.dec.com!minow From: minow@mountn.dec.com (Martin Minow) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer Subject: Re: Inter-Process Communication Message-ID: <1821@mountn.dec.com> Date: 6 Aug 90 13:38:59 GMT References: <1990Aug4.063810.14788@cs.uoregon.edu> <2286@polari.UUCP> Reply-To: minow@bolt.enet.dec.com (Martin Minow) Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation Lines: 27 >robert@polari.UUCP (robert) writes: > As part of my research I have to write a bunch of applications that > can talk to each other ... I haven't found *any* reference to this > ... I was essentially told: Wait for System 7. To repeat what Nick Jackiw wrote, you might be able to solve your problem using Appletalk. About two years ago, I wrote a distributed application (three computers for data, two managed dedicated projection displays) that used Appletalk to pass data around. To debug it on my single home machine, I used the SetSelfSend capability and (wonder of wonders) it worked perfectly the first time I tried to talk between two machines. A few minor tricks that made my life easier: -- The "server" and "client" were the same application (a menu option selected "server," "client," or "both"). -- All of the Appletalk requests were asychronous. -- The event loop polled the Appletalk queue for completed (and new) messages, putting them back on the free list when done. -- I could turn on a *lot* of debug tracing. The hardest part of the problem was handling the name-binding protocol -- the description is obscure (to put it politely). Be sure to read the relevant tech-notes. Martin Minow minow@bolt.enet.dec.com