IPC Demo Sources
                            ================

This directory contains source files for a Print Formatting Server
("Pserver"), and a very dumb Client program to test it ("MinClient").
Both of these sources are heavily commented, and are intended as
demonstrations of how to use the IPC protocols.

Include header file:

    IPC.h   -- a copy of the file from IPC_Sources, for convenience.


Source Files:

    Pserver.c
    MinClient.c


Link Files (for BLink):

    Pserver.lnk
    MinClient.lnk

Documentation:

    Pserver.doc --  A detailed description of the message format accepted
                    by Pserver, and the requirements for using it.

    MinClient.doc   --  A short description of the test program and its
                        commands.


                            ++++++++++++++

Compatibility:

    These programs have only been tested under Lattice 4.0.  They will need
    some conversion (ensuring LONGS are used where necessary, and so on)
    for compilation under Manx.


Notes:

    These programs have been written to reduce space as much as possible:
    they use '_main()' rather than main(), for instance, and don't use
    C level I/O -- just AmigaDOS calls.  They should be compiled using the
    Lattice -v switch, to reduce space a little more, and there may be
    other measures that could be taken.

    This means that they CANNOT be invoked directly from an icon in their
    present form -- only from a CLI.  AS they need to run simultaneously
    (!) they must either be started from their own CLI, or with the RUN
    command (remembering that they both can generate console output).

    You can use an Xicon script to set them both going in a suitable
    environment (as in the demo icon on this disk), but there are TRAPS!
    These seem to be due to a bug in RUN, which has problems when it is
    invoked from an AmigaDOS Execute() call: you MUST redirect the output
    of RUN ITSELF to NIL: to avoid Guruing.  For example:

        RUN >NIL: Pserver >"CON:100/50/450/100/Pserver Output"

    [This is nothing to do with IPC -- it is a general problem Xicon has
    with AmigaDOS -- as far as I can tell, it's the systems fault (:-))]
    See the script for the demo for more details.