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Are you developing a software product that needs a way to communicate with another computer via an unfamiliar protocol ?
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Data communications can be quite frustrating. Sometimes it seems easier to make people understand each other than computers. Configuring both sides when installing a
shrink-wrapped purchased product can be hard enough, but now your customer wants your application to interface with one of his suppliers using a protocol that you barely heard about.
We've been doing this kind of thing many times over. We've been writing programs that talk APPC, CPI-C, RJE, XModem. We've been coding to the NetBIOS API, we've written
SMPT and FTP clients against the appropriate RFC specs, and more.
Typically, this is just a black box when seen from the remainder of your application. Once it's up and running, you can forget about it. Maybe later, you'll have to go in and change a
record length or so, but typically you can get away with parameters.
What we usually do in such cases is develop the "black box" for you, help you get it built into your application, and educate you on the issues that you may run into when installing.
Once you get it up and running, we move on, leaving behind all the sources and documentation, pointers to the appropriate protocol manuals etc.
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