I want our Mac OS X client applications to be able to connect to a
Win32 server application which is on the same LAN.
I haven't done much network programming yet (only some CFReadStream /
CFWriteStream communication to talk to a web server on the WAN via
http).
I wonder whether DCOM is an option at all, or if we have to use some
sort of sockets (or whatever is the most appropriate way to go).
To understand why I'm considering DCOM for the Mac OS X clients, I
have to provide some background information about our software
constellation:
Currently, there are several Win32 and Mac O X client applications.
On all the Win32 boxes and Mac OS X boxes usually different client
applications are running.
These client applications do *not* connect over a network, instead
every box has its own system-specific instance of the server
application running; so only local inter-process communication (IPC)
has been realized so far.
IPC on Win32 boxes is implemented using DCOM, IPC on Mac OS X uses
AppleEvents.
Now, instead of running one system-specific server instance per
client box, we want to provide one server instance only, running on a
Win32 box on the LAN.
So, all the clients (Mac OS X and Win32) should connect to that one
Win32 server process via network communication instead of using IPC
to connect to their local server application instance.
First tests showed that it's possible for Win32 client applications
to connect to the Win32 server application by using DCOM over the
network -- only minimal code changes were required.
If Mac OS X clients *were* able to use DCOM to connect to the Win32
server application, it might save a lot of development effort,
because the Win32 server application's implemetation does not have to
be changed.
On the other hand, Google doesn't know much about DCOM for Mac OS X,
it seems there was a beta version available for classical Mac OS
around 1997...?
Maybe someone can point to documentation, or has experience using
DCOM on Mac OS X?
Incase DCOM is *not* the way to go, is there an official /
recommended approach for platform-independent client-server data
transfer over a (local) network?
Do I assume correctly that the Win32 server application somehow has
to register itself to a certain port / protocol, and all the clients
connect to the given IP-address/port (probably using TCP/IP)?
Is there a recommended API for the Mac OS X clients (e.g. CFStream,
BSD sockets)?
Thanks for any recommendations and pointers to documentation and
sample code!
