Conclusion

There are several networking classes in REALbasicmore than I can cover herebut now that you know how the TCPSocket class works, you are ready to tackle all the others. There are a few classes known as EasyTCPSocket and EasyUDPSocket that provide an even easier way to create sockets than how I've shown you here, but because TCPSocket is easy enough to use as it is, I don't think a lot would have been gained by reviewing them. They also use some proprietary methods of connecting two applications that require both applications to be written in REALbasic. I think a more common requirement is going to be to use the networking classes to access some other networked application not written in REALbasicsomething like a web server or mail server, for exampleso for that reason I haven't devoted any time to them.

In the next chapter, I'll look at a handful of advanced topics, which include scripting REALbasic and working with Microsoft Office products.