Info on a new release of XML-RPC is at: http://lwn.net/1999/0624/a/xml-rpc.html This is an alternative way of calling remote programs using xml data, and is implemented in python. In case we do decide CORBA is too big for our needs. -- Humberto Ortiz Zuazaga Bioinformatics Specialist Institute of Neurobiology hortiz at neurobio.upr.clu.edu