Dan, both emails you've sent have been very helpful. From your first email, I was then able to isolate some articles that pointed out that Cocoa archives can hold Objective-C and Java objects, scalars, arrays, structures, and strings. Therefore, I simply changed the <protocol> of the methods to return a NSString and it I'm able to return very large NSString values from the server to the client.
@interface Traceroute : NSObject
- (NSString *)do_trace:(NSString *)words;
@end
@implementation Traceroute
- (NSString *)do_trace:(NSString *)words {
NSLog(@"Performing traceroute. String = %@\n",words);
return((NSString *)@"..proper route being taken..");
}
@end
I was also able to call the do_trace and pass from the client a large string value with no problem.
One more thing. As you can see above, through you advice, I found that I have no problems return()'ing an NSString. If I want to return multiple pieces of data I'm guessing that is when I need to use Marshalling/Archiving and UnArchiving. I'd create a structure (or object) to hold the pieces of data I want to return. I'd then send it through a Coder to Archive it then use the return() call to return the Archived value and then Unarchive it on the client side? I haven't seen any examples of the on the net (using DO) or the books I have.
My books do not have a good section on Marshalling/Archiving with DO -- could you give me the name of the Big Nerd book??? Also, I would very much like to see your research on NSDistantObjects.
Again, you have been very helpful, thank you.
Dalton Hamilton