Friday, August 02, 2002, 5:49:11 PM, you wrote: TJH> Well, the Unified RFC Protocol can be used for RPCs, but that is a fairly TJH> limited view of it (perhaps you misread 'rfc' as 'rpc'?). There is no any misreading. I really mean RPC, since I interpret it as the protocol of dialogue between Client and Server, i.e. sequence of inquiry and answer. Besides, USP supports some more then dialog. Events, it is packets, generated by server without client's inquiry. Events are notifying clients about status/mode/data changing. USP allows packing and transferring any information as well. But it describes not only the format of RCP; USP also regulates the unified format of data representation. Thus application can unpack and represent answers of any USP-based protocol to the user or store them to object-oriented database. This format of data representation is readable (it is similar XML but short-spoken). It is possible to describe any objects and data with its help. The unification of data representation is another degree of unification and protocol's integration than unification of call/response only. Besides one USP server can share some affiliated protocols and the client can switch between those sub-protocols as between interfaces. In this case saying "interface", I mean set of functions. -- Best regards, Timur mailto:Timur@niist.ntu-kpi.kiev.ua