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CORBA: The Essentials
CORBA: The Essentials
An Annotated Bibliography
COM S 514 Final - Spring 1996
Alfred Hong
April 26, 1996
This bibliography intends to provide an essentials reference guide to
understanding CORBA from various perspectives. Bibliography entries are
ranked in the order in the following categories:
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Soley, Richard and Stone, Christopher, eds. The Object Management
Architecture Guide. Rev. 3.0. John Wiley & Sons and Object
Management Group, Framingham, MA, 1995.
-
This is the definitive, overview guide to the terminology, objectives,
and the specification of CORBA. It introduces the Object Management
Group (OMG) Core Object Model, the OMG Reference Model, the
standardization procedures, the proposal procedures, and specification
guidelines of OMG. The OMG Reference Model consists of the four
layers: the Object Request Broker (ORB), CORBAservices,
CORBAfacilities, and Application Objects of which the first three are
described in detail in their own specification texts.
-
Object Management Group. The Common Object Request Broker: Architecture
and Specification. Rev. 2.0. Object Management Group,
Framingham, MA, 1995.
-
The Object Request Broker (ORB) is the foundation of CORBA. ORBs are
essentially agents that transparently service data requests/responses
from CORBA objects and clients through object adaptors (OA) via an
object-oriented version of an RPC mechanism. The interfacing between
ORBs and CORBA objects via the Interface Definition Language (IDL) and
the Dynamic Invocation Interface (DII) are also specified. Revision
2.0 also defines interoperability and portability guidelines for ORBs
from different vendors.
-
Object Management Group. CORBAservices: Common Object Services
Specifications. Object Management Group, Framingham, MA, 1995.
-
CORBAservices (better known as COSS for Common Object Services
Specification in literature) is the layer directly above ORBs that
provide a recognized set of essential services available to CORBA
objects. This is a "growing" document in that not all envisioned
services have been defined yet. Some of the specified ones include
naming, events, transactions, and persistence.
-
Object Management Group. CORBAfacilities: Common Facilities. Object
Management Group, Framingham, MA, 1995.
-
CORBAfacilities is the layer above CORBAservices that defines higher-
level services and functions for the fourth layer -- end-user
applications -- of the OMG Reference Model. It includes both
horizontal and vertical CORBAfacilities which are mostly introduced
but have yet to be specified as of this writing. This is a "growing"
document as well.
-->Table of Contents
-
Minton, Gabriel. "Programming with CORBA." Unix Review 14, 4 (April
1996), 29-39.
-
This is an up-to-date and easy-to-read tutorial on CORBA. It provides
background history on OMG, summarizes the information in the defining
specifications on CORBA (first four entries of this bibliography), and
presents an Interface Definition Language (IDL) and C++ coding example
using SunSoft's NEO CORBA environment.
-
Vinoski, Steve. "Distributed Object Computing with CORBA." C++ Report
5, 6 (July/Aug. 1993), 32-38.
-
This technical overview of the CORBA foundations explains how CORBA
makes sense from the perspective of distributed object-oriented
application development with C++. It describes the CORBA components
-- the Object Request Broker (ORB) Core, the Interface Definition
Language (IDL), the Dynamic Inovation Interface (DII), the Interface
Repository (IR), and the Object Adapter (OA) -- individually as well
as how they work together.
-
Betz, Mark. "Building a CORBA Object Server." Software Development 3,
10 (Oct. 1995), 53-61.
-
It is straightforward for proficient C++ programmers to develop a
CORBA object server using C++ and Orbix -- IONA Technologies' CORBA
implementation. The process is demonstrated in a detailed step-by-step
manner, from IDL interface specification to compilation of the example.
-
Mowbray, Thomas J. and Zahavi, R. The Essential CORBA: Systems Integration
Using Distributed Objects. John Wiley & Sons and Object
Management Group, Framingham, MA, 1995.
-
This book is geared towards systems integrators who are building
systems based on CORBA. The book examines overall integration issues
and techniques; includes a good tutorial on the CORBA architecture;
discusses security issues and implementations; and introduces example
ORBs available on the market so that successful CORBA systems can be
implemented.
-->Table of Contents
-
Maffeis, Silvano. "Adding Group Communication and Fault-Tolerance to
CORBA." In Proceedings of the 1995 USENIX Conference on
Object-Oriented Technologies. (Monterey, CA, June 1995). USENIX
Asso., Berkeley, CA, pp. 203, 135-146.
-
Although CORBA is meant for distributed systems, one shortfall is its
lack of dealing with fault-tolerance, which could be implemented in
software as groups of replicated objects that utilize reliable
multicast communication. Recognizing this limitation, the author
presents and discusses Electra -- "the best of both worlds," a generic
object request broker (ORB) that adds the reliable group multicast
capabilities of systems such as Horus and Isis to a CORBA
implementation.
-
Schmidt, D. C., Harrison, T., and Al-Shaer, E. "Object-Oriented Components
for High-speed Network Programming." In Proceedings of the USENIX
Conference on Object-Oriented Technologies. (Monterey, CA, June
1995). USENIX Asso., Berkeley, CA, pp. 203, 21-38.
-
This paper presents another problem with CORBA. It evaluates
performance problems of "communication middleware" on high-speed
networks; CORBA-based mechanisms (like Orbix and ORBeline), which
are considerably slower, are compared against C/C++-based sockets.
The authors also devised a middleground Adaptive Communications
Environment (ACE) object-oriented programming toolkit that improves
the performance problems they have encountered.
-
Orfali, R., Harkey, D., and Edwards, J. "Client/Server Components: CORBA
Meets OpenDoc." Object Magazine 5, 4 (May 1995), 55-59.
-
CORBAfacilities specifies higher-level services and functions for the
Application Objects layer of the OMG Reference Model; however, most of
these have been introduced but have yet to be specified. OpenDoc,
which essentially provides what CORBAfacilities requires, is mature
and is anticipated to be merged into or adopted by the CORBAfacilities
specification (this has occurred as of the writing of this bibliography
and has been named Distributed Document Component Facility). OpenDoc
enables the creation of multiple "live data," or live object, compound
documents.
-
Tisaranni, John V. "IONA's Orbix: Object Request Broker." Object
Magazine 5, 5 (July/Aug. 1995), 82+.
-
IONA Technologies' Orbix is one of the most popular, commercially
available, full implementations of CORBA. The author reviews versions
of Orbix that adheres to the CORBA 1.2 spec but focuses on Orbix
extensions that are not defined in CORBA, such as object binding,
smart proxies, IDL-C++ binding, and more; some of these have become
part of the CORBA 2.0 spec. Work with other companies to further
address shortfalls of CORBA are also briefly mentioned. For instance,
Orbix+Isis provides fault-tolerance functionality.
-->Table of Contents
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Bernstein, Philip A. "Middleware: A Model for Distributed System
Services." Communications of the ACM 29, 2 (February 1996),
86-98.
-
CORBA is not the only mechanism/middleware that is intended to
support distributed computing; various competing models exist. This
paper provides an educational look at how the heterogeneity and
distributed nature of industry needs and requirements gave birth to
middleware; classifies middleware; and discusses services that
middleware should provide. Middleware integration issues and its
future are examined as well.
-
Schmidt, Douglas C. and Vinoski, Steve. "Modeling Distributed Object
Applications." C++ Report 7, 2 (Feb. 1995), 64-68.
-
This is second in a series of columns on distributed object computing
(DOC). It outlines an approach to DOC implementation by discussing the
application environment and requirements (hardware, network, etc.) and
examining key functionalities to look for in competing DOC frameworks
(CORBA, Network OLE, and OODCE). For example, CORBA does not have
security measures or multithreading capability; however, some of these
have become part of the latest specification.
-
Brando, Thom. "Comparing CORBA & DCE." Object Magazine 6, 1 (March
1996), 52-57.
-
This is an informative guide to CORBA through comparison with DCE
Because of their numerous similarities, the author dispels confusion
by explaining CORBA through contrasting the differences between
CORBA and DCE. The paper includes a clear diagram showing the OMG
Reference Model and depicting specified and yet to be specified
CORBA components.
-
Foody, Michael A. "OLE and COM vs. CORBA." Unix Review 14, 4 (April
1996), 43-45.
-
Microsoft's Component Object Model (COM) is the defining object model
for the popular Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) for desktop
applications. COM's object model is quite different from CORBA's,
which makes interoperability between the two difficult. OMG has
completed the COM-CORBA interoperability specification; however,
distributed COM, contained in Network OLE (see next entry), is still
being defined and may pose a greater challenge for interoperability
specification between the two.
-
Halfhill, Tom R. and Salamone, Salvatore. "Components Everywhere."
BYTE 21, 1 (Jan. 1996), 97+.
-
Network Object Linking and Embedding (Network OLE) from Microsoft and
CORBA 2.0 from the Object Management Group are compared. CORBA 2.0
is already available with years of refinement; especially the new 2.0
specification has added additional portability and distributed
computing enhancements. Although Network OLE is not available yet,
Microsoft's strategies and OLE 2.0 availability make Network OLE a
formidable opponent.
-->Table of Contents
-
Pompeii, John. "The Design and Construction of LISA." DBMS Magazine
8, 13 (Dec. 1995), 68-82.
-
This is a case study of a real-world property management system that
is completely object-oriented. It was built with IBM's distributed
systems object model (DSOM), a CORBA-compliant framework, and runs on
a heterogeneous TCP/IP network with over 60 Oracle7 database servers.
The fruits of OMG and the Object Database Management Group (ODMG)
are impressively displayed by the variety of DSOM services (hence
CORBAservices) utilized: naming service, persistence, event
notification, concurrency control, and more.
-
Almasi, G., et al. Web* -- A Technology to Make Information Available on the
Web." In Proceedings of the Fourth Workshop on Enabling
Technologies: Infrastructure for Collaborative Enterprises (WET ICE
'95) (Apr. 20-22, 1995, Berkeley Springs, West Virginia). IEEE
Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos, CA, pp. 147-153.
-
Web* is an enhanced common gateway interface (CGI) script that
includes a Tcl-based Orbix dynamic invocation interface (DII), allowing
it to act as an Orbix client to CORBA-compliant servers. The authors
briefly describe the use of the static interface definition language
(IDL) versus DII in Web*. Although CORBA is not the major focus of
the paper, nevertheless, Web* is a freely available working example
of a CORBA client. The authors also mention a May 1995 trial of Web*
for dynamic generation of medical patient records using an Orbix
interface to Oracle databases.
-->Table of Contents