'''[http://cs.lmu.edu/~ray/notes/messagepassing/%|%Message passing]''' refers to the messages that information systems pass among themselves, achieving thereby some kind of [distributed computation]. Message passing systems use some form of [IPC%|%inter-process communication] provided by the platform. ** Description ** In message-passing systems, one system makes a request, and another provides a response. The requestor is called the '''client''', and the responder is called theer '''server'''. These roles exists even in [peer to peer%|%peer-to-peer] systems, where the participants take on one role or the other for the duration of the conversation. ** Tools ** [irc]: [vkvalli]: A simple chat server and chat client library can be used for message passing . There are quite a few chat server and client implementations in this wiki. It seems to be suitable candidate for simple coordination among processes with messages. But generally people miss it when they look for IPC mechanisms. [Spread]: Provides a high-performance messaging service that is resilient to faults across external or internal networks. ** Applications ** [RPC]: Conversations dressed up as procedures. [remote interpreter]: In the Tcl world, communicating with remote interpreters is a particularly effective and satisfying activity. <>