You wrote:

> In order to time sync the user PC with the remote ICI system server, the

> local

> ICSA must measure the round-trip time as best as it can that then

> requires the

> program to wait for that server reponse or the round-trip time could be

> extended by local processing done before the ICSA gets back to recording the

> time when the reply arrives.  This seems to be the only case at the moment

> where it is important to not just continue with another communication

> request

> if the current one is waiting.  I seem to be writing a small multi-threaded

> program that sequences through the open and pending communication

> channels, and when there is something to do, completes that portion of the

> communication for that channel.  And perhaps I need to have these various

> channels time-out, e.g., in a file transfer to that other communication

> requests

> can be comp;leted at the same time. Another way to do this would be to spawn

> or fork another process for each communication request.  Perhaps there needs

> to be a combination of both methods where communications that seem to be

> taking longer than usual get their own process while the short ones can be

> multiplexed in the same program



Hmm, it seems you best know your work. =] If C is at least as

object-orientated as VB, then I can say I understand your situation:

It's not all that hard, but it makes things just a bit more complicated

and that could be a problem when there is so much yet to be done. Well,

it turns out it's worth it to make things as flexible and as powerfull

as possible, because then it's so much easier to continue programing.

You will probably have an effort of making a standard, so I don't know,

maybe process forking might not be that bad anyway? Oh, an make sure

that your program is listening *while* it is transmiting, you never know

what will a situation be like on such asynchronus systems as the

Internet and interapp communication.



> Microsoft's named pipe method for C can be found at the following.

> 

> http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/ipc/pipes_7plx.asp

> 

> A named pipe is like a socket and provides a way to communicate directly

> from

> process to process.  And according to Microsoft's documentation,

> interprocess

> communication is very fast with named pipes.  We were looking at alternate

> methods earlier and this may be a good one to investigate.  Later, I

> might be

> able to code a DLL that you could link with your VB that would provide named

> pipe capability.



Ah, I have understood it as DOS pipes. =]

I don't know how a DLL will do for incoming transmitions as it only has

functions, no events, but surely there is a way (take-first-entry

function and a recieve queue in the DLL, for example).



But this all is functionaly the same as using a PO file on a RAM drive.



> I did find the text I entered into the Society screen in a

> \windows\temp\icic\user.pof

> file.



Hmm... I'll check it out.



> I agree that thinking for awhile does assist greatly.  There just seems

> to be so much to do.



There was a time when I had exactly the same feeling for the Console. =]



> I am getting the feeling that we--you and I--may want to investigate our own

> marketing plan for your program.  Perhaps a bit of research on how to market

> software of this kind needs to be done.  And perhaps I should ask if you are

> very interested in marketing it.  At some point you are either writing

> software that you can sell on your own, or you are writing software for someone

> else to sell or use in their own business.  (And then _services_ similarly.) Or

> maybe software is a bit of a hobby.  I would like to know how you view what

> you are doing and what you have in mind.



I am mostly looking forward to some team benerfit. Personal benerfit is

somehow on a low priority here, working for the benerfit of the comunity

has always been my idealism. There are points that need to be taken into

acount:

- In either case I would be selling my work with your help, because I'm

not experienced nor do have the school knowledge required for such

action.

- My current work: the Console is not ready to be sold yet. If it was to

be sold now, it could do harm:

  - The lack of esthetics could make a bad impression on the buyers and

the potential buyers of the next version.

  - The level of obvious functionality would likely not improve

significantly in the next version, we would only be adding things that

are rather obscure to an average computer user and particulary in the

case of ICI will be possible to be used over the Internet without any

local upgrade at all.

- The software does not include the basics required to get a person to

buy it. All we have that is ICI-specific is the Console's icon, which is

a bit to pathetic if you ask me. The very minimum would be a splash

screen, with our team logo, ICI logo and a background that would fit the

idea of ICI.



C'ya!



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