I need to write a program that will interact with other .NET programs ... but also an outdated VFP program over TCP. I need to choose a fairly simple TCP message format that a VFP programmer can use. It can be as simple as a sequence of small XML blocks bounded ... I don’t know the null character? Whatever.
I need to select TcpListener / TcpClient and WCF. I started to learn WCF, but its architecture seems opaque, and Visual Studio's built-in templates are strongly tied to creating “web services” that act as a kind of RPC mechanism but require a special “host” or web server that is external to to the application, Microsoft's 6-step tutorial makes WCF sound pretty bulky (including code generators, command line and XML crap to just subtract or multiply two numbers).
I want a standalone application (no "host"), I want to manage a wired protocol and I want to understand how it works. WCF doesn't seem to make these things easier, so I abandoned it in the TcpListener / TcpClient coefficient.
However, the program must act as an intermediary between one (VFP) server and many (.NET) clients, and there will be a connection in both directions and in different connections. Using TcpListenerand TcpClient, the work of juggling connections and threads becomes a bit messy, I have no experience with IAsyncResult, and I'm not just not sure about the quality of the code.
So, I would like to get an opinion again: should I still consider WCF? If so, can you point me to the answers to the following questions?
- Where is a good explanation of WCF architecture on the Internet? Or do I need a book?
- How is bidirectional communication carried out in WCF, where either side (of a single TCP connection) can send a message at any time?
- How can I go through all the mumbo-jumbo web services and RPMs and manage the wiring protocol?
- WCF, , Thread.Abort()?
, ( TcpListener/TcpClient/NetworkStream), NetworkStream, , , ?