A Solution


You could write your own network protocol for exchanging the data, for example:

Client Request:

    type: exchange_rate\n
    country1: US\n
    country2: UK\n
    date: 20030409\n
    \n
    EOF

Server Response:

    type: exchange_rate\n
    status: ok\n
    rate: .6361\n
    \n
    EOF

While you're at it you can create a forking server to sit and listen on a port for these requests (you eventually want more than 4 customers); sample clients in the various target languages (Java, Perl, PHP, VB, C++, etc); and you might also want to cross your fingers and hope that this server isn't going to be asked to do more than exchange rate information in the future. Maybe throw some prayers in for good measure.