Best IPC mechanism

[piyush]

Hello,
I need help deciding the best IPC mechanism to communicate between a
legacy C++ app (dealing with telephony) and other Top level
applications that would call the API functions. Both of these
applications would "always" reside on the same system.

Given that fact, I was thinking if WM_COPYDATA would be the best IPC
mechanism.

But my question is, from the perspective of a top level application
developer (in any language such as Java, C++, C#, VB using XML,
Jscript, JavaScripts etc), would the necessity to provide a window
(hidden probably) and have a overridden WndProc method be too
restrictive ??? Would RPC be a better alternative, or for that matter
any other means of IPC be better ?

Please advise,
Thanks a lot !
Piyush

PS: I am a total newbie in this field of language-independent software
development issues. So please pardon if this is a really stupid
question.

 

[Vijaye Raji]

If you have the flexibility of modifying your legacy apps, you should
consider IPCs other than WM_COPYDATA. WM_COPYDATA requires a window or in
the very least a message handler.

You can try Named Pipes. They are simple and efficient. Or if you're
transfering large amounts of data, consider using File Maps.

-vJ