Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!midway!zaphod!francis From: francis@uchicago.edu (Francis Stracke) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc Subject: Re: 7.0 CAN pipe (was Re: System 7.0 vs. NeXT Step) Message-ID: Date: 28 Jan 91 15:56:35 GMT References: <11468@helios.TAMU.EDU> <1991Jan23.204448.23778@unx2.ucc.okstate.edu> <5646@idunno.Princeton.EDU> <2898@casbah.acns.nwu.edu> <1991Jan25.092823.16868@cpsc.ucalgary.ca> Sender: news@midway.uchicago.edu (News Administrator) Organization: Mathematics Department, University of Chicago Lines: 31 In-Reply-To: sharp@fsd.cpsc.ucalgary.ca's message of 25 Jan 91 09:28:23 GMT In article <1991Jan25.092823.16868@cpsc.ucalgary.ca> sharp@fsd.cpsc.ucalgary.ca (Maurice Sharp) writes: The 7.0 toolbox provides all that is necessary to create pipe applications. A pipe is just a filter, you bung data in one end, it [...] Under 7.0, you can create a background only application. That is, one that has no (or little) interface, and runs entirely in the background. You drop a data file on the application, and it can do its stuff. It could produce another data file at the end, or it could invoke another faceless application with the output. Sounds like a pipe to me. It sounds like what Mess-Dos calls a pipe, sure. But you don't get any communication until the app is finished. Under Unix, data is sent to a special buffer, and the receiving app can read it any time. You can, with a bit of work, set up 2 pipes, and get 2-way communication, which is clearly not possible with this scheme. That being said, it remains true that AppleEvents and other IAC may work reasonably well as pipes. Anybody know how much data you can send with one call this way? (If nothing else, you could use same-node AppleTalk, which would work even pre-Sys7.) -- /=============================================================================\ | Francis Stracke | My opinions are my own. I don't steal them.| | Department of Mathematics |=============================================| | University of Chicago | Until you stalk and overrun, | | francis@zaphod.uchicago.edu | you can't devour anyone. -- Hobbes | \=============================================================================/