Acronym for
Dynamic Data Exchange, an
interprocess communication (IPC) system built into the
Macintosh,
Windows, and
OS/2 operating systems. DDE enables two
running applications to share the same
data. For example, DDE makes it possible to
insert a
spreadsheet chart into a
document created with a
word processor. Whenever the spreadsheet data changes, the chart in the document changes accordingly.
Although the DDE mechanism is still used by many applications, it is being supplanted by OLE, which provides greater control over shared data.
