Customer Reviews

IIOP Complete: Understanding CORBA and Middleware Interoperability

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I read this book. Most of all, it clearly explains what is GIOP, IIOP, and CORBA message mechanism. You can understand how CORBA message flows from client to server object. Moreover, if you are interested in security, it is the first starting point to be studied. However, it's content is so limited that I can't get more than the inner mecahnism about message between objects. I hope that the author of this book will write more about layer above message mechanism.(i.e. what CORBA stub, skeleton really do for our objects)

This book contains surprisingly many details on its 262 pages. The print is small and hardly any sentence is wasted. It makes a very accurate impression. I easily trust the authors on their facts and arguments. They seem to be knowledgeable and close to the field. Personally I would prefer larger print, more sentences per idea and a little wider scope in topic.

"IIOP Complete" has a long chapter outlining the coming enhancements in IIOP and GIOP versions 1.2, but since the book was published before these versions were released, it is not as current as one might wish today.

Nevertheless, it is still an excellent book -- the best I've found -- on the protocols underlying ORB-to-ORB interoperabilty. I can't wait for an updated edition of the book.

If you need a better understanding of IIOP, or you want a better understanding of the underpinnings of CORBA, you will not be disappointed with this book. I have not found a better book on IIOP.

"IIOP Complete" provides excellent coverage of IIOP-related topics. Since IIOP is the protocol atop of which CORBA is based (as well as Java's RMI-over-IIOP), it will provide you a much better understanding of the whys and hows of CORBA, as well; however, don't expect it to be an introduction to CORBA, since that is not its focus.

Some previous reviews complained that "IIOP Complete" did not meet expectations regarding CORBA which is not its intent. This book covers everything BETWEEN CORBA and the byte stream transport protocol (e.g., TCP/IP).

Topics include: ORB interoperability, data representation, GIOP, CDR (the language used "over the wire"), object addressing, type representation, marshalling, pass-by-value, name spaces, portability, availability and reliability, transparency, domains/bridging, scalability and load balancing, forwarding, versioning, connections, security, encryption (SECIOP), firewalls, relationships with Java and HTTP-NG, and compares and contrasts IIOP with other popular middleware strategies (e.g., database, RPC, transaction processing, and message-oriented).