Class Overview

Each class provided in the C++ Class Library is either an abstract base class or a user class. Abstract base class instances are not directly constructible using the SmartSockets C++ Class Library. Instead, you construct instances of an appropriate derived user class. All the classes are summarized here:


Class	Description
TipcConnServer	User class representing a SmartSockets server connection. Implements the behavior found in the C API function TipcConnCreateServer.
TipcConnClient	User class representing a SmartSockets client connection. Implements the behavior found in the C API function TipcConnCreateClient.
TipcMon	User class for interacting with general monitoring information.
TipcMonClient	User class for interacting with RTclient monitoring information.
TipcMonServer	User class for interacting with RTserver monitoring information.
TipcMsg	User class for constructing, manipulating, and destroying a SmartSockets message. Encapsulates information about a SmartSockets message, including accessors for its type, sender, destination, priority, delivery mode, read-only, and other properties. Defines accessors for manipulating the data property of a SmartSockets message.
TipcMsgFile	User class for file I/O operations such as TipcMsgFileWrite.
TipcMt	User class for constructing, manipulating, looking up, and destroying SmartSockets message types.
TipcSrv	User class representing the RTclient functionality (TipcSrv APIs). Manages no private TipcSrv-specific data, but does include a static instance pointer to permit one-time object creation only (SmartSockets processes do not allow more than one RTserver connection per process).
Tobj	Abstract base class for error-handling, containing a status flag only.

Relation to the C API

Both the C++ class library and the C API upon which the C++ class library is built allow you to send and receive messages asynchronously across a heterogeneous computer network. They can be used to perform tasks such as:

sending and receiving prioritized messages between two processes through connections

executing user-defined callback functions when certain operations occur

sending messages among many processes by RTserver using subjects

monitoring processes by watching the subjects to which they are subscribing

retrieving the current values of all slots in a subject

detecting network failures and initiating actions to recover from them

sending messages using different IPC protocols over a heterogeneous network of computers

The C++ class library offers a C++ member function for most of the SmartSockets C API calls.

Naming Conventions

All IPC functions start with Tipc

All SmartSockets message type numbers start with T_MT_

Most IPC typedefs, enumerated values, and defines start with T_IPC_

All message functions start with TipcMsg

All message type functions start with TipcMt

All connection functions start with TipcConn

All functions that communicate with RTserver start with TipcSrv

All monitoring functions start with TipcMon

C++ public member functions start with uppercase letters, and their names appear with their redundant C API prefixes stripped from them. For example, the C API function TipcMtLookup becomes TipcMt::Lookup in the C++ class library.

C++ private and protected member functions start with lowercase letters. For example, TipcMsg::size() in the C++ class library.

Where the C API functions appear in set and get pairs, the C++ class library replaces them with C++ polymorphic, same-named pairs, differentiated by whether they require an argument or not. For example, the C API functions called TipcMsgSetType and TipcMsgGetType become the member functions TipcMsg::Type(TipcMt& mt) and TipcMsg::Type() in the C++ class library.

Some C++ member functions truncate the C API name when it is not ambiguous. For example, the C API function TipcSrvMsgSend becomes TipcSrv::Send in the C++ class library.