Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!mephisto!bloom-beacon!EXPO.LCS.MIT.EDU!keith
From: keith@EXPO.LCS.MIT.EDU (Keith Packard)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: Interclient communication
Message-ID: <9008181358.AA01443@expo.lcs.mit.edu>
Date: 18 Aug 90 13:58:22 GMT
References: <36334@ut-emx.UUCP>
Sender: daemon@athena.mit.edu (Mr Background)
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 22


> There are basically two modes of communication: a program having data that
> other programs can come and get (passive send / active receive), or a program
> desiring data whenever other programs send it (passive receive / active send).

> Right now we have a system using the Intrinsics' selection mechanism that
> allows two different programs to communicate in either mode.  The passive send
> / active receive is implemented with standard selections.  The passive receive
> / active send is also implemented with selections, where the selection is an
> Atom that represents a program's identity (we have established a set of known
> program identity atoms).  By asking for this selection, and indicating a desiredconversion type, another program indicates that data is available for the
> identified program wanting the data (the kind of data being represented by the
> conversion type).

For the second type of transfer, I think you want to use the special
selection target INSERT_SELECTION.  This causes the selection owner to
request the specified selection contents.  It was originally designed to
allow the two clients to exchange data in both directions at one time, but it
doesn't matter if you only use the reverse direction.

Keith Packard
MIT X Consortium