Hello !

We have legacy applications that are very difficult to go to XPP. Because they 
still run on DOS and depend on special hardware. They are telephony cards.

But I need to implement TCP/IP communiction on those old applications.

I have thought about some things and would like to see if you have any other 
ideas :

- Find out some Library to offer TCP/IP to old Clipper. Have found nothing. Do 
you know something ?

- Build a XPP application that runs as a server (multithreaded app). This XPP 
application will talk TCP/IP. On the other hand, as clients, this XPP 
application would have the legacy Clipper executables. However, which would be 
the protocol amongst Clipper and XBase++ in this case ? What would you use ?

Thanks in advance !

Jose Adriano Baltieri wrote:

> - Build a XPP application that runs as a server (multithreaded app). This XPP 
> application will talk TCP/IP. On the other hand, as clients, this XPP 
> application would have the legacy Clipper executables. However, which would be 
> the protocol amongst Clipper and XBase++ in this case ? What would you use ?

Depending on how time critical the communication between client and server
is, you could use shared (dbf) files. The client puts requests into a dbf
file queue and the server reads the file and executes the request.

But with this few details you are giving I can only guess what suits your
needs.

thomas

Thomas Braun wrote:
> Jose Adriano Baltieri wrote:
> 
>> - Build a XPP application that runs as a server (multithreaded app). This XPP 
>> application will talk TCP/IP. On the other hand, as clients, this XPP 
>> application would have the legacy Clipper executables. However, which would be 
>> the protocol amongst Clipper and XBase++ in this case ? What would you use ?
> 
> Depending on how time critical the communication between client and server
> is, you could use shared (dbf) files. The client puts requests into a dbf
> file queue and the server reads the file and executes the request.
> 
> But with this few details you are giving I can only guess what suits your
> needs.
> 
> thomas

Time is not so critical. I thought about exchanging simple (plain) text files 
with request/answer.

The xpp application would monitor a folder where the Clipper application would 
drop the files.

On the answer back, the Clipper application would monitor the same folder.

But I thought about something more sophisticated, such as some protocol. 
Something from CA Tools, I dont know.

What do you think ?

Thanks !

Hi,
Just googling "TCP/IP DOS" I've found this free library
Looks interesting
http://www.smashco.com/wattcp.asp

Regards,
Pablo Botella

On Thu, 18 Dec 2008 14:17:54 -0300, Jose Adriano Baltieri wrote:

you can use named pipes
from clipper's perpective a named pipe is a file as any other you can
write/read using fread fwrite

HTH
Angel

> Hello !
> 
> We have legacy applications that are very difficult to go to XPP. Because they 
> still run on DOS and depend on special hardware. They are telephony cards.
> 
> But I need to implement TCP/IP communiction on those old applications.
> 
> I have thought about some things and would like to see if you have any other 
> ideas :
> 
> - Find out some Library to offer TCP/IP to old Clipper. Have found nothing. Do 
> you know something ?
> 
> - Build a XPP application that runs as a server (multithreaded app). This XPP 
> application will talk TCP/IP. On the other hand, as clients, this XPP 
> application would have the legacy Clipper executables. However, which would be 
> the protocol amongst Clipper and XBase++ in this case ? What would you use ?
> 
> Thanks in advance !

Angel Pais wrote:
> On Thu, 18 Dec 2008 14:17:54 -0300, Jose Adriano Baltieri wrote:
> 
> you can use named pipes
> from clipper's perpective a named pipe is a file as any other you can
> write/read using fread fwrite
> 
> HTH
> Angel
> 
Hi Angel :

Interesting approach.

However, from XPP perspective, what is a named pipe ?

Or, for the file system or operating system, what is a named pipe ?

Also, remember my Clipper applications are running on DOS yet. And I cant 
modify that because migrating to Windows would demand improving hardware, what 
we cant afford right now ...

So ?

Jose Adriano Baltieri wrote:

> However, from XPP perspective, what is a named pipe ?

A File

> 
> Or, for the file system or operating system, what is a named pipe ?

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa365590(VS.85).aspx

Not sure how this works in DOS, though...

HTH
Thomas

Jose,

 have a look at the Ca-Tools sample directory. There you will find
 a sample NBDCHAT.PRG which implements a simple chat
 programm using the netbios protocol.

 Because the XbToolsIII provide you the identical netbios
 functions you can easily establish a point-to-point communication
 between a Xbase++ application on one workstation with a dos
 application on another workstation.

 I would propose to first try out the clipper sample with clipper
 in your network, then build a Xbase++ version. Test the interoperability
 based on the simple chat programm. If thats works move ahead and
 implement your own protocol.

 With regards
 Steffen F. Pirsig
 Alaska Software

"Jose Adriano Baltieri" <jabaltie@unimep.br> wrote in message 
news:4061835c$1c0d7e9$771@news.alaska-software.com...
> Hello !
>
> We have legacy applications that are very difficult to go to XPP. Because 
> they still run on DOS and depend on special hardware. They are telephony 
> cards.
>
> But I need to implement TCP/IP communiction on those old applications.
>
> I have thought about some things and would like to see if you have any 
> other ideas :
>
> - Find out some Library to offer TCP/IP to old Clipper. Have found 
> nothing. Do you know something ?
>
> - Build a XPP application that runs as a server (multithreaded app). This 
> XPP application will talk TCP/IP. On the other hand, as clients, this XPP 
> application would have the legacy Clipper executables. However, which 
> would be the protocol amongst Clipper and XBase++ in this case ? What 
> would you use ?
>
> Thanks in advance !