paulc@microsoft.UUCP (Paul Canniff 2/1011) (11/12/89)
I recieved this message from Paul Grous, and am posting the reply to the net. | From uunet!lotus!pgrous Thu Nov 9 08:38:37 1989 | | [....] | | ... can you tell me why Named Pipes are restricted to essentially | only being used by servers? Why can't a workstation service a np across | the net? To me, I see this as a severe limitation. Don't you? True | peer-to-peer communication would be possible. God, even NetBIOS gives us | that capability, (as painful as it may be). Are there any plans to | change this in the near/far future? Some clarifications for the world at large: Paul is correct that LM 1.0 workstations cannot "service" (i.e. originate, create) a named pipe. They can OPEN a pipe. But you can't have workstation-to-workstation pipes in LAN Manager 1.0. Brief reply: named pipes are restricted to servers, because the server software is the component which manages sessions, external security, and handles remote file I/O request. This is logical since pipe I/O (for the client) is much like file I/O and thus is handled (mostly) in the same place. Of course to some extent this is a high-level abstraction but you get the idea. On Monday 11/6/89 Microsoft announced LM 2.0 which includes Peer Services. This provides an OS/2 workstation with the ability to service one client at a time with print and disk services. For example you can now allow users to get files directly from your workstation instead of copying the files to some server. And you can allow selected users, ONE AT A TIME, to access your personal nuclear-powered full-color 256-page/second laser printer. :) Importantly, it allows unlimited IPC (Inter-Process Communication) clients. Unlimited except for normal design and implementation limits, of course. But this gives all OS/2 stations the option of being full IPC peers, for both pipe and mailslots. To a remote client, your "Peer Services" workstation looks like a server, which provides pipes and *limited* disk/print services. Key points: Peer Services is optional on OS/2 1.2 workstations. Peer Services is "free" in that you do not have to buy an additional server license. It is part of the normal *workstation* license. It comes in the box. Peer Services looks like a server. Server-side apps like SQL-Server can run on this platform! So your client-server-model apps are portable and easily distributed. I just reviewed the above, and I am sorry if this sounds like a sell job. What I am trying to do is to communicate that pipes become more widely peer-to-peer in LAN Manager 2.0, and I don't know how to do that w/o the about "product info" text. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DISCLAIMER: I work for Microsoft, but this is my opinion and not that of Microsoft Corp.
crc@stl.stc.co.uk (Clive Carter) (11/16/89)
In article <8816@microsoft.UUCP> paulc@microsoft.UUCP (Paul Canniff 2/1011) writes: stuff deleted here >On Monday 11/6/89 Microsoft announced LM 2.0 which includes >Peer Services. This provides an OS/2 workstation with the >ability to service one client at a time with print and disk >services. stuff deleted here >Importantly, it allows unlimited IPC (Inter-Process >Communication) clients. > My question is: Will LM Peer Services be supported on DOS workstations as well as on OS/2 workstations? ----- Regards, Clive Carter (crc@stl.stc.co.uk (+44) 279 29531 ext3646)