Aye. You see a lot of programs like this -- any chat server/client, or any multiplayer game works in this manner. One program hosts; one program is the client. You're right -- it's very similar to what I'm doing here. The only real difference is I'm letting one program do both things for us, so it's BOTH the client and the host, and the host is doing all the actual work and calculations while the client has a much smaller area of responsibility.
Where do I see something like this perhaps being useful?
Mainly for folks who may want to create custom pop-up windows, similar to our _MESSAGEBOX or _INPUTBOX and such.
Structure your main program so it can handle command line instructions. When you need a custom pop-up, SHELL Command$(0) with the proper parameter, and start a second instance of your program which uses that to create the pop-up for you. Let both programs communicate back and forth, until the pop-up is finished, then close it and return control back to the main program.
I think that's about the main thing I'd use it for, I guess.
Where do I see something like this perhaps being useful?
Mainly for folks who may want to create custom pop-up windows, similar to our _MESSAGEBOX or _INPUTBOX and such.
Structure your main program so it can handle command line instructions. When you need a custom pop-up, SHELL Command$(0) with the proper parameter, and start a second instance of your program which uses that to create the pop-up for you. Let both programs communicate back and forth, until the pop-up is finished, then close it and return control back to the main program.
I think that's about the main thing I'd use it for, I guess.