Rendezvous programs can exchange binary data buffers using datatype TIBRVMSG_OPAQUE. The program is free to use any format and content within opaque data. However, it is good practice to avoid extensive use of opaque data.
For example, opaque buffers can contain data structures mapped by C language structs—but beware, this technique couples your programs rather tightly to the data structure. If you change the struct definition in the sender, you must also change it in the listener, and vice versa. Exchanging structs also makes it more difficult to introduce new, interoperating programs in the future. Furthermore, exchanging internal structs makes it difficult to for your program to interoperate with programs developed in other languages.
Binary data and internal structs are also platform dependent—you cannot exchange raw, binary data between programs running on machines that represent numbers or character strings with different formats.
