The generic server program provides basic server functionality: it continuously receives and executes requests (via an invocation of the SOMOA's execute_request_loop method), until the server is stopped. Some requests result in the creation of SOM objects; the generic server program will find and load the DLL for the object's class automatically, if it has not already been loaded.
When generic server program functionality is not sufficient for the particular application, application-specific server programs can be developed. For example, some applications may want to interact with a user or I/O device between requests. The previous section, entitled "Basic Server Programming," discussed the steps involved in writing a server program.