I need to figure out a good way for a mapbasic application to
communicate with another computer over a Windows/NT network. One
computer is receiving GPS signals from remote "units", and
dumping these in an Access database. I can't run MapInfo on this
one. The computer where my app will live will also be on the
network and needs to get those data and map them.
Now I could simply read the data in that Access table, but since
signals are arriving ansynchronously, I would need to set up some
sort of a polling system in mapbasic which is ugly in mapbasic if
you also need to provide for user interaction. There is no "do
events" in mapbasic and the only remote interrupt signal you can
get hold of is via DDE. MapInfo tech support said take a look at
Microsoft's Network DDE, but they have not tried that themselves.
It sounded pretty good at first, but it turns out that the
Network DDE dynamic link library is only 16 bit for 32-bit
systems! From MS's web page:
"Windows 95/98: The system includes a 16-bit NDDEAPI.DLL.
However, there is no 32-bit NDDEAPI.DLL. Therefore, on Windows
95/98, Win32-based applications that use network DDE functions
need to thunk to the functions in the 16-bit NDDEAPI.DLL."
I really hope to avoid creating a thunk layer, so I probably
won't be using Network DDE unless I'm cornered.
I know DDE is passe now, but it seems so odd to me that MS
provides so little support for direct network communication, that
I must be missing something. How DO you talk over a Windows
network? And how do I do it with mapbasic? Anyone have any ideas?
- Bill Thoen
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this list, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put
"unsubscribe MAPINFO-L" in the message body, or contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
