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+# ZeroMQ service MicroDrop plugin #
+
+This project implements a [MicroDrop][1] [plugin][2] to interface with a
+[ZeroMQ][3] service.
+
+The basic idea is to have a service exposed through a ZeroMQ interface,
+responding on a `zmq.REP` socket to the following two messages:
+
+ - `start` -> `started`
+ - `notify_completion` -> `completed`
+
+This provides a basic inter-process method for starting a service,
+followed by a notification upon completion.  The plugin provides a
+timeout option for each step in the DMF protocol to limit the amount of
+time spent waiting for a service to complete.
+
+__NB__ As of this commit, the MicroDrop app seems to freeze in the case
+where the service times out, after the error message indicating the
+protocol has failed is displayed.  This is likely due to threading
+issues, which will be resolved after the plug-ins are ported to run in
+separate processes.
+
+[1]: http://microfluidics.utoronto.ca/microdrop
+[2]: https://software.sandia.gov/trac/pyutilib/export/1831/pyutilib.component.doc/trunk/doc/plugin/pca.pdf
+[3]: http://zeromq.org