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From: es1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Ethan Solomita)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: IAC (was Re: Clipboard (was Re: The Amiga's Future))
Message-ID: <1991Jun8.150007.11846@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu>
Date: 8 Jun 91 15:00:07 GMT
References: <1991Jun8.030855.18976@neon.Stanford.EDU> <1991Jun8.044840.1404@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> <1991Jun8.074935.781@neon.Stanford.EDU>
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In article <1991Jun8.074935.781@neon.Stanford.EDU> torrie@cs.stanford.edu (Evan Torrie) writes:
>rjc@geech.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Ray Cromwell) writes:
>
>>  Standardization. The Amiga has had interprocess communication from
>>day 1. It will be awhile before the Mac catches up. 
>
>  Yes, but as you mention in your clipboard example, this is not really
>a technical advantage.  Indeed, Apple (as they have done with most things)
>have set pretty strong standards for things like AppleEvents (with
>required, core, functional-area and finally custom events), so I would
>expect all major developers to have a very strong incentive to build
>IAC into their programs.

	Actually, that's not true. I was reading an article I
think in InfoWeek or some such which was talking about how
Microsoft (of course! 8) is using a different standard and now
companies are faced with the choice of either working with
MicroSoft programs or Apple programs.

>  Just as a question, to what extent is Amiga IPC standardised?  I take it
>that Arexx is the method of standardisation?  Who defines Arexx?  How does 
>one program know what messages another program can accept?  Are there 
>set messages defined for things like "Drag this object to this location"?
>
	There are no set messages, besides the system messages.
Each program defines its own. The method of sending and receiving
messages is what is defined. Actuall, I do vaguely remember
seeing a list from Commodore of standard commands, but as usually
most Amiga programmers aren't following the rules.

>>  Speed. Amiga messages are not copied, only pointers are passed, and
>>messages are reused.
>
>  Does Amiga IPC work across a network (I'm asking, I don't know)?
>i.e. can one Amiga program send a low-level message to a program on
>another machine?  That's one of the more powerful features of System 7
>IAC vs for example, Microsoft's DDE.  IAC is totally transparent
>across the network.
>
	No. It should be pretty simple to implement in a number
of ways, but there is no official way to do it.
	-- Ethan

Now the world has gone to bed,		Now I lay me down to sleep,
Darkness won't engulf my head,		Try to count electric sheep,
I can see by infrared,			Sweet dream wishes you can keep,
How I hate the night.			How I hate the night.   -- Marvin