AW: AW: [plt-scheme] DDE client on PLaneT

Hi Jens Axel,
I thought a little bit over your mail and actually you put it right:

To paraphrase "If you actually need DDE, you'll know what it is" and "If you
don't know what DDE is, you won't need it" :-)

I wasn't able to say it as short.

The section Thanks of the manual - a bit unusual list some literature like a
very similar link to that you found
<http://www.angelfire.com/biz/rhaminisys/ddeinfo.html>

Robert

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: jensaxel at soegaard.net [mailto:jensaxel at soegaard.net] 
Gesendet: Friday, November 03, 2006 14:41
An: Robert Matovinovic
Betreff: Re: AW: [plt-scheme] DDE client on PLaneT


Hi Robert,

> Nice to find the manual on the web. Besides, I like your source 
> browser although I don't use it really, I just tried it when you 
> announced it last time.

Thanks.

> Concerning DDE, actually it's a nightmare to deal with the inside. 
> Especially because I didn't find any useful introduction. But luckily 
> there is ddeclient now.
> 
> I didn't put an example in the manual since I thought it's better to 
> provide one as file, so a user can start from there with something 
> that already works. There is a section "Getting started" in the manual 
> which should help. In the introduction is stated that to work with 
> another program over DDE you should look up its manual. For Word and 
> Excel you find it in the Visual Basic for Applications help, if you 
> have installed it. Is that what you need?
> 
> I found the following after quick search of the internet:
> 
> DDE
>  Acronym for Dynamic Data Exchange, an interprocess communication 
> (IPC) system built into the Macintosh, Windows, and OS/2 operating 
> systems. DDE enables two running applications to share the same data. 
> For example, DDE makes it possible to insert a spreadsheet chart into 
> a document created with a word processor. Whenever the spreadsheet 
> data changes, the chart in the document changes accordingly. Although 
> the DDE mechanism is still used by many applications, it is being 
> supplanted by OLE, which provides greater control over shared data.
> 
> Perhaps I should add that to the manual. I didn't provide a link for 
> further DDE reading, because I didn't find anything recommendable - 
> it's true.

The best I could find was:

     <http://www.angelfire.com/biz/rhaminisys/ddeinfo.html>
     <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_Data_Exchange>
     <http://windowssdk.msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms648711.aspx>

> DDE
> is old exists since Windows 3.1 and was never a real hit, however in 
> these days the only way to exchange data between applications 
> automatically. Later came OLE and ActiveX and nobody wanted to deal 
> with DDE anymore,  if they want Microsoft products to communicate. 
> Finally since .NET times Visual Basic doesn't support DDE anymore for 
> example. So it is an oldtimer for those who are forced to use it. And 
> there are still applications which only use this channel to 
> communicate. One of these applications I work with and that is the 
> reason for ddeclient.

Okay - that explanation actually helped to things in perspective. To
paraphrase "If you actually need DDE, you'll know what it is" and "If you
don't know what DDE is, you won't need it" :-)

/Jens Axel