Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
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From: torrie@cs.stanford.edu (Evan Torrie)
Subject: Re: IAC (was Re: Clipboard (was Re: The Amiga's Future))
Message-ID: <1991Jun8.185720.19063@neon.Stanford.EDU>
Sender: torrie@neon.Stanford.EDU (Evan James Torrie)
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University, Ca , USA
References: <1991Jun8.030855.18976@neon.Stanford.EDU> <1991Jun8.044840.1404@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> <1991Jun8.074935.781@neon.Stanford.EDU> <1991Jun8.150007.11846@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu>
Date: Sat, 8 Jun 1991 18:57:20 GMT
Lines: 60

es1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Ethan Solomita) writes:

>In article <1991Jun8.074935.781@neon.Stanford.EDU> torrie@cs.stanford.edu (Evan Torrie) writes:
>>
>>  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.

  Microsoft (of course! :-() have ulterior motives.  This is a big
worry to developers at the moment, and it's something Apple has tried
to allay in just the last couple of weeks.  For example, from
this week's MacWeek article on the Open Scripting Architecture.

  "Apple said the architecture will encompass two approaches to IAC: the
Object model the company developed and the simpler Remote Procedure Events
model UserLand President Dave Winer is encouraging.
 ...
  The broader standard may ease concerns that differences in approach
between Apple and Microsoft Corp. could limit the benefits of IAC.  "RPE
is broad enough to include Dynamic Data Exchange, Microsoft's 
interapplication messaging protocol," Winer said.  "It's reasonable to
expect Microsoft apps will eventually be scriptable."
 
  It will be interesting to observe how events turn out.  Certainly, 
one of the biggest concerns from the corporations is that they want
IAC to be cross-platform.  Indeed, there have been quotes from Apple
that they're thinking about moving AppleEvents and IAC across into
the Windows world, or at least making them a platform-independent
standard (as they have done with Appletalk).
  Similarly, Microsoft would like to gets its Object Linking and
Embedding established as a cross-platform standard.

>>>  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.

  Definitely something to look into.

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Evan Torrie.  Stanford University, Class of 199?       torrie@cs.stanford.edu   
"I didn't get where I am today without knowing a good deal when I see one,
 Reggie."  "Yes, C.J."
