To access a Windows named pipe, you create it, connect it, read it, write it, and close it. The following table lists these tasks and their C and ABL equivalents.

Table 1. Using C and ABL to access Windows named pipes

Task	C	ABL
Create	CreateNamedPipe()	None
Connect	ConnectNamedPipe()	None
Read	ReadFile() FlushFileBuffers()	INPUT FROM
Write	WriteFile()	OUTPUT TO
Close	CloseHandle()	INPUT CLOSE OUTPUT CLOSE

As the above table shows, C lets you create, connect, read, write, and close Windows named pipes, while ABL lets you read, write, and close them.

Actually, ABL lets you perform all the tasks in the table if you use ABL's access to DLLs to call into kernel32.dll, which contains all the C functions in the table.