Editing Desktop communication protocol (section)

== DCOP model ==
DCOP implements the [[client–server model]], where each application using DCOP is a client and communicates with other clients through the DCOP server. DCOP server functions like a traffic director, dispatching messages/calls to the proper destinations. All clients are peers of each other.

Two types of actions are possible with DCOP: "send and forget" messages, which do not block, and "calls," which block waiting for some data to be returned.

Any data that will be sent is serialized (also referred to as ''[[Marshalling (computer science)|marshalling]]'' in [[CORBA]] speak) using the built-in QDataStream operators available in all of the [[Qt (software)|Qt]] [[Class (computer science)|classes]]. There is also a simple IDL-like compiler available (dcopidl and dcopidl2cpp) that generates stubs and skeletons. Using the dcopidl compiler has the additional benefit of [[type safety]].

There is a command-line tool called ‘dcop’ (note the lower-case letters) that can be used for communication with the applications from the shell. ‘kdcop’ is a [[Graphical user interface|GUI]] tool to explore the [[Interface (computer science)|interfaces]] of an application.