what is it called when a program talks with other programs or other computers

Question

As a true beginner, one often finds that the barrier to further knowledge is not knowing what to google.

I've made programs like pong and a sudoku solver, simple things. These days I would like to work on something more like tabslock or make a multiplayer pong, or at least start thinking about what that would involve.

So what exactly is it called when programs cause other programs to do this or that, or when a program talks with a copy of itself on another computer somewhere else in this vast internet.

z.

Answer 1

I expect that searching for server/client examples and socket programming in general will get you headed in the right direction.

For example, a google search for socket client server c will get you to An Introduction to Socket Programming.

A similar search for socket client server java gets you to a Lesson on Socket Communications

Answer 2

Network communication, TCP/IP communication, etc.

Try googling for "socket server examples in "