I need to implement a simple socket-based interprocess communications method
between some Delphi code (currently Delphi 7 Pro; could go to BDS2006) and
some Java code. All of the code is written in-house, so we can do what we
want to it. The current IPC mechanism is Windows messages (all on Windows XP
platforms), but that approach is too restrictive for where we want to get
to. I haven't done anything with sockets in Delphi before, but I've been
doing a lot of reading.
Basic information being passed around are "state tokens" or "state flags"
(e.g. check for an update, start your process, etc. represented as
integers), and sometimes an XML file/document, which is Unicode from the
Java side of things and more than likely will contain "non-ASCII" characters
(i.e. Korean or similar characters). Currently the Delphi app reads these in
from disk and processes them just fine - I want to make sure I don't screw
things up in a socket implementation and mess up the "string handling". The
idea is to have a central "proxy" that matches a Java "supplier process" to
a Delphi "consumer process". Messages meant to go between the pair would go
to the proxy that would then forward them to the corresponding "other end"
of the pipe.
I've done a bunch of searching and reading, and looked at "Mastering Delphi
7", and at delphi.about.com, and at the info.borland.com and
dn.codegear.com -- and everything suggests something different. There
TTCPServer, TServerSocket, Indy stuff (both versions 9 and 10), there's the
TWSocket (Francois Piette's) package, plus a couple more. There's mixed
messages on what's considered deprecated, obsolete, less elegant ... so I'm
getting more and more confused.
I'd like to start with something relatively simple that I'll be able to
understand. I'd like something with some decent documentation, and ideally a
good user community with a wiki/forum that I can search. Some decent
demonstration applications and good documentation would be ideal.
So where do I start? What component set or library would be "best" (or at
least good) if I stick with Delphi 7? What would be your recommendation if I
was to use BDS2006?
Does it really matter if I can get it working well enough with the "old"
components? Am I setting myself up for future grief?
Thanks.
