To: OpenDoc Development Framework Discussion List, ODF-Interest@CILabs.
Serge says:
"I have several OpenDoc parts that will read/write their data from/to the
network. There will also be a local cache file for that data. Since there
may be several instance of my OpenDoc parts open in different documents,
the parts cannot manage the cache file directly. So I thought having a
background task to serve all my OpenDoc parts, managing the cache file and
performing network communication.
I see two methods to communicate information between my parts and my
background part server:
1. AppleEvents
2. OD extensions
What is the best way?"
I have a similar problem; I want to create a service and it must be OpenDoc aware. My part service will be focused on serving the document as a whole (I could extend its scope to be cross-document, but I don't need to here). I'm writing a faceless part editor that is communicated with via AppleEvents; the preferred method of interprocess communication for MacOS 8. I'm also conforming to the AppleEvent Registry Core Suite fully ('cause its the right thing to do!).
So long as my service doesn't require any co-operative services, the part editor should be able to run as a pre-emptive task in the future (providing that OpenDoc enables this to happen with MacOS 8).
I'd be interested in any feedback to my approach to writing services. I suspect that other services would be written in a similar fashion.
