Message generation by distributed programs can be divided into two broad kinds:
· Normal (often user-prompted, client-generated) messages
· Server event messages, containing information about server activity, either normal or extraordinary
Similarly, DCE makes available to applications two messaging APIs:
· The DCE messaging interface
· The DCE serviceability interface
The DCE serviceability interface is designed specifically to route messages of the second type; it is described in Using the DCE Serviceability Application Interface . Messages in the first category are output using the DCE general-purpose application messaging routines, which are the subjects of this topic.
Although the two interfaces, broadly speaking, do the same general thing (that is, write messages), their functionality was designed to serve different needs, both of which occur in most distributed applications. Nevertheless, either interface can be used more or less exclusively of the other, if desired.