Handbook of Local Area Networks, 1998 Edition:LAN-based Application Development Issues and Solutions Click Here! Search the site:   ITLibrary ITKnowledge EXPERT SEARCH Programming Languages Databases Security Web Services Network Services Middleware Components Operating Systems User Interfaces Groupware & Collaboration Content Management Productivity Applications Hardware Fun & Games EarthWeb sites Crossnodes Datamation Developer.com DICE EarthWeb.com EarthWeb Direct ERP Hub Gamelan GoCertify.com HTMLGoodies Intranet Journal IT Knowledge IT Library JavaGoodies JARS JavaScripts.com open source IT RoadCoders Y2K Info Previous Table of Contents Next Vendor Support for CORBA Although many vendors support CORBA and are committed to its long-term success, CORBA2-compliant products have been slow to emerge. There is much promise, however, as vendor are working together to develop joint products and frameworks that are CORBA compliant. Creating interchangeable, reusable software components is, however, very much a reality today. Available are a variety of object-oriented programming languages, design and analysis aids, and visual programming tools. There are products that act as object-oriented enablers and frameworks built into the latest releases of some operating systems. What cannot be found are some key pieces needed to complete a system that works as smoothly and openly as the hardware development process. HP, IBM, and SunSoft have been working together to integrate HP’s Distributed Object Management Facility (DOMF), IBM’s System Object Model (SOM) with distributed technology extensions (DSOM), and SunSoft’s Distributed Objects Everywhere (Project DOE) into a core infrastructure technology for the implementation of these vendors’ distributed object services, applications, and development tools. These products are intended to provide developers, systems administrators, and end users with language-neutral, enterprisewide, heterogeneous support for building, managing, and using distributed object-oriented applications that interoperate across multiple platforms. DOMF, SOM/DSOM, and Project DOE are implementations of CORBA and use the CORBA IDL to specify object interfaces. DSOM/DOMF Architecture HP’s DOMF provides a location transparent object-communications mechanism across heterogenous networks by using OSF’s DCE technology. Objects (clients) requesting services from other objects (servers) merely have to issue the request for service to an object using its object reference (handle) and identify the service to be performed. DOMF provides all the services necessary to deliver the request to the correct object and to return a response indicating the result or outcome of the request. HP’s DOMF is implemented in both Smalltalk and C++. IBM’s SOM is based on a language-neutral object model that provides a packaging and run-time technology for shared object libraries with cross-language accessibility. IBM’s trademarked SOMobjects tools are used to break objects free from ties to a specific programming language. SOM provides an object-structured protocol that allows applications to access and use objects and object definitions, regardless of what programming language created them, with no need to recompile the application. SOM’s language-neutral character allows software objects to be easily used and reused wherever they are needed; it also enables openness in the development and use of object-oriented programming facilities across multiple operating platforms. SOMobjects incorporates DSOM technology, which provides a base for object-oriented programming development and use over entire networks. The SOMobjects tools are available for both the OS/2 2.0 (or higher) and IBM AIX/6000 3.2 (or higher) operating systems and is planned for the MS Windows environment. The SOMobjects toolkit allows developers to create object-oriented class libraries and instances of those classes using SOM and DSOM technology. Exhibit 6-4-7 shows the HP/IBM technology architecture. Exhibit 6-4-7.  HP/IBM Technology Architecture Overview Other Offerings NCR offers its Cooperative Frameworks, which consist of software components (classes), collaterals, and consultation that form the foundation for building business-critical systems. The software components are grouped as foundation services across multiple platforms. Collaterals are online help, online reference, and training. The foundation services and portions of the collaterals are analogous to the common facilities of CORBA. Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC) markets its Application Control Architecture (ACA) Services, which allow users to easily launch popular desktop applications from a wide variety of platforms. DEC also licenses its ACA Services source code to systems vendors and software developers. ACA Services is DEC’s ORB for integrating applications across 10 heterogeneous platforms and two transports. IONA Technologies markets its ORBIX products as a full implementation of the CORBA standard. ORBIX was the first product for developing CORBA-compliant applications on the MS Windows platform. It also comes with a graphical tool for creating new applications by using a repository of objects that contains information about each object’s published interface so that new applications can be created simply by connecting multiple objects together on the screen and creating a new executable. SUMMARY The CORBA market continues to mature. When ORBs are included within an operating system’s core, the technology will then be widely available for use. Currently many vendors are providing ORBs for their platforms, although they are not yet included with their operating system’s core. OMG has published request for proposals for object services and common facilities. The availability of object services and common facilities from commercial vendors, coupled with the widespread availability of object-based development environments for building CORBA2-compliant applications, will be needed before CORBA can take a serious run at the client/server marketplace. Previous Table of Contents Next Use of this site is subject certain Terms & Conditions. Copyright (c) 1996-1999 EarthWeb, Inc.. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of EarthWeb is prohibited. Please read our privacy policy for details.