CPI-C: An API for distributed applications

Distributed applications have fostered the standardization of application programming interfaces for the underlying communication services. Three popular communication models—remote procedure calls, messaging and queuing, and conversations—support distributed applications across different networking protocols and physical media. Access to the conversational services of Advanced Program-to-Program Communication and Open Systems Interconnection-Distributed Transaction Processing is provided by the Common Programming Interface for Communications (CPI-C), a standard, easy-to-use interface for communication programming. This paper introduces the basic concepts of CPI-C, describes the conversation services available to programs, and presents examples of CPI-C programming.