mr_gees100_peas wrote: > Hi, > > This is just hypothetical but I guess I have not been able to ask > the right question or don't know the proper terminology here. Lets say > you have a program running on your pc. You click a button and this > program sends a message to another computer (windows pc). A program in > that remote pc then recieves the message and does some action. Once > the action is done it returns a reply saying that the action was > succesfull or not. > > My question is what do I need to accomplish something like this. LEts > say from my pc send a message to a second pc and open the cd drive. > Then return a message to tell whether that cd drive did open. > > That is the best i can describe it. I don't know what would this fall > under. I have no code since I don't even know what to google for to > begging with.
Interprocess Communications (IPC). TCP/IP sockets, named pipes. Remote Procedure Call (RPC). Pretty old-school stuff. This is the heavy-weight version of IPC. Generally superseded by things like CORBA. CORBA. Have no idea what it means nor have ever had a need to use it. Generally superseded by SOAP/WSDL/Web Services. SOAP/WSDL/Web Services. _WAY_ overkill for pretty much everything and is, IMO, a big hack to proxy commands through ubiquitous web server technology. Requires a XML parser, web server, all sorts of configuration changes, WSDL and SOAP libraries, and fiddling around with generating/installing/using cryptographic keys. That is just to get it working...getting it to do something useful is entirely different. Depending on how complex you want to go, I'd say TCP/IP is the simplest, most portable, and "easiest" method. Just be aware of the last method. I haven't had a need yet to mess with it (thankfully) but it is definitely out there. PayPal, for example, has some interesting stuff that I might eventually use that requires it. Also, be aware of the security implications of opening a CD-ROM drive using a remote computer. You will want to use some form of cryptographically protected communications mechanism (e.g. SSL/TLS) to protect the remote machine from would-be attackers. You may even want to do a personal public/private key pair to guarantee that only you have access. -- Thomas Hruska CubicleSoft President Ph: 517-803-4197 *NEW* MyTaskFocus 1.1 Get on task. Stay on task. http://www.CubicleSoft.com/MyTaskFocus/
