  This paper presents a general xml-based distributed software architecture in
the aim of accessing and sharing resources in an opened client/server
environment. The paper is organized as follows : First, we introduce the idea
of a "General Distributed Software Architecture". Second, we describe the
general framework in which this architecture is used. Third, we describe the
process of information exchange and we introduce some technical issues involved
in the implementation of the proposed architecture. Finally, we present some
projects which are currently using, or which should use, the proposed
architecture.
