Path: utzoo!yunexus!unicus!craig
From: craig@unicus.UUCP (Craig D. Hubley)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Amiga IPC should be the Amiga Unix IPC!
Message-ID: <2504@unicus.UUCP>
Date: 10 Apr 88 05:10:11 GMT
Article-I.D.: unicus.2504
Posted: Sun Apr 10 01:10:11 1988
Reply-To: craig@unicus.UUCP (Craig D. Hubley)
Organization: Unicus Software Inc., Toronto, Ont.
Lines: 27

Um, I just thought of this.

If Amiga Unix will be System V.3, and System V.3 already has an IPC mechanism,
brain-dead as it may be, it should be used.  So that AmigaDOS tasks can talk
to Amiga Unix tasks (remember AmigaDOS will run as a task under Amiga Unix).
Remember, many of the `real machine' services/facilities/whatever you need
most are likely to be on the Unix side, if you have both.

Even if you don't have Unix, it's worth it just to have a standard.  You 
can always add the message broker, fake Berkeley sockets, etc., on top of
this mechanism, if Commodore hasn't already done it.  Don't forget that 
System V.4 will supposedly have sockets and other Sun-isms.  But I don't
know if it will be available for 680x0 ports... AT&T claims it will.
And you might be able to build a Unix back-end to accept relayed requests from
Amiga programs on a remote/ethernetted Unix machine, giving you an RPC
mechanism to boot.

Not only that, but the System V mechanisms will be well-understood from
the word `go'.  I've never used them, but I understand semaphors and
rudimentary message-passing is available in addition to pipes, etc.
Anyone who's used System V IPC mechanisms care to comment ?
No doubt we'd still need a nice shared library of easy routines...

	Craig Hubley, Unicus Corporation, Toronto, Ont.
	craig@Unicus.COM				(Internet)
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