Understanding Corba [Textbook Binding]

Randy Otte (Author), Mark Roy (Author), Paul Patrick (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 10, 1995

For all application designers, programmers and decision makers who need to understand the new CORBA standard for interoperable objects. This is the first book to offer a detailed treatment of the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) standard that allows applications to share and exchange objects across disparate computers and platforms. Presents a conceptual overview of CORBA, and detailed information about designing, implementing and deploying CORBA applications. Covers designing both the client and server side of a CORBA applications.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

If you are reading this book, you are likely to be either a person interested in what exactly CORBA is all about in general terms or a person interested in the details of designing, developing and deploying a distributed application using CORBA.

If you are interested in general knowledge about CORBA, such as its relationships to other standards, how it came about, and what its components are, then Part I is for you.

If you are an application designer or developer interested in the details of how to create a distributed application with CORBA, then the entire book is of interest to you. Parts II, III, and IV, respectively, discuss how to design, build, and deploy a distributed CORBA application.

In writing this book, we did not assume that you as a reader are experienced with using object-oriented programming, are familiar with CORBA or the work of the OMG, or are familiar with any particular software vendor's CORBA system.

Typographic Conventions

This book uses the following conventions: Symbol______Meaning________

bold text
Indicates the introduction of a new term that is defined in the glossary.

monospaced Indicates code fragments, routines, opera- text tions, constructs, or attributes.

. . . Indicates one of the following conditions:

Optional arguments omitted.

The preceding item or items can be repeated one or more times.

Additional parameters, values, or other information can be entered.

.Indicates the omission of items from a . code example or command format that are not . relevant to the topic being discussed.

In examples, indicates that whatever is enclosed in the brackets is optional; you ____________can_select_none,_one,_or_all_of_the_choices.__

Source Code Conventions in the Examples

The OMG IDL and C source code examples in this book use the following conventions:

Coding_Convention___Description___________________________

or Comments at the beginning of comment substantial code fragments indicate the programming language (OMG IDL and C code are very similar in appearance).

{ Braces delineate the beginning and end } of a piece of code and have the same left- side indentation as the code the braces delineate.

MODULENAMES Module names are in uppercase text and do not contain underscores.
By not allowing underscores in the module name, we can distinguish the names of nested modules from the names of non-nested modules.
For example, the Module B contained within Module A would be named A_B.
If underscores were allowed in module names, nested module and non-nested module names could conflict.

CORP is a valid module name.

operation_names
Operation names in the OMG IDL language are in lowercase text and contain underscores between words in the operation name.
For example, promote is a valid single-word operation name.

argument_names
Argument names are in lowercase and can contain underscores to separate words in the name.
For example, new_job_class is a valid argument name.

CONSTANTS and Constants and enumerated type member ENUMERATED_TYPE_ names are in uppercase letters and MEMBER_NAMES words in the names are separated by underscores.

For example, HIRED_HOURLY is a valid enumerated type member name.

UserDefined Type Names
User-defined type names are in mixed case and do not contain underscores.
Each word in the variable name has an initial uppercase letter; other letters in the word are lowercase letters.

User-defined types are created using structures, typedefs, interfaces, attributes, and so on.

For example, DeptInfo is a valid user-defined type name.

non user defined
Non-user-defined data type names data type names are in lowercase and cannot contain underscores to separate words in the name, but can use spaces.

For example, unsigned long is a valid data type name.

CORBA_C_bindings
CORBA C bindings of non-user-defined OMG IDL data type names are prefixed with CORBA_.

Although this is not a convention used in Version 1.1 of the CORBA specification, it is part of the Version 1.2 specification and so we adopted it in this book.

For example, the CORBA data type that corresponds to_the_C_long_data_type_is_CORBA_long.

Diagram Conventions

The following conventions are used in the diagrams in the book:

Indicates a computer system or group of computer systems.

Indicates a CORBA component. The use of multiple boxes offset from each other indicates that there

may be more than one copy of that component, such as multiple client applications.

Indicates components and interfaces that are conceptual and in some cases end user-supplied, such as the OMG IDL code.

Indicates an application programming interface (API) or system programming interface (SPI) that CORBA defines. These interfaces conceptually sit on the physical components that implement or contain them (for example, the object adapters implement the BOA API).

Indicates components and interfaces defined by the CORBA architecture.

Indicates components and interfaces that are not defined by the CORBA architecture, but that are related to it.

Related Documentation

The following is a list of related books that you might find useful, grouped by the topics they cover:

Distributed computing
- Distributed Computing Implementation and Management Strategies edited by Raman Khanna, published by Prentice Hall (ISBN: 0-13-220138-0)

CORBA and the Object Management Group (OMG)

- Object Management Architecture Guide by the OMG

- The Common Object Request Broker: Architecture and Specification by the OMG

- Common Object Services Specification, Volume I by the OMG (ISBN 0-471-07684-8)

You can obtain copies of specifications from OMG over the Internet through the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) with the following address:
ftp.omg.

Distributed Computing Environment (DCE)

- Understanding DCE by Ward Rosenberry, David Kenney and Gerry Fisher, published by O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. (ISBN: 1-56592-005-8)

- Guide to Writing DCE Applications by John Shirley, published by O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. (ISBN: 1-56592-004-X)

Object-oriented analysis and design
- Object-Oriented Analysis and Design with Applications by Grady Booch, published by Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Co (ISBN: 0805353402)

- Object-Oriented Analysis and Design by James Martin and James J. Odell, published by Prentice Hall (ISBN: 0-13-630245-9)

- Object-Oriented Software Construction by Bertrand Meyer, published by Prentice Hall (ISBN: 0-13-629049-3)

- Designing Object-Oriented Software by Rebecca Wirfs- Brock, Brian Wilkerson, and Lauren Weiner, published by Prentice Hall (ISBN: 0-13-629825-7)

Digital's ObjectBroker product, which implements CORBA
- ObjectBroker Overview and Glossary

- ObjectBroker Installation and Configuration Guide

- ObjectBroker System Integrator's Guide

- ObjectBroker Reference Manual

These documents are available through Digital Equipment Corporation (telephone number: 1-800-DIGITAL).

From the Back Cover

This is the first book to offer a detailed treatment of the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) standard that allows applications to share and exchange objects across disparate computers and platforms. Presents a conceptual overview of CORBA, and detailed information about designing, implementing and deploying CORBA applications. Shows how to use CORBA techniques such as inheritance, object attributes and operations. Shows how to refine an application model to reflect a distributed environment. Covers designing both the client and server side of a CORBA applications. : All application designers, programmers and decision makers who need to understand the new CORBA standard for interoperable objects.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Textbook Binding: 288 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR; 1st edition (October 10, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0134598849
• ISBN-13: 978-0134598840
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 1.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,079,996 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good introduction for the uninitiated, July 21, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Understanding Corba (Textbook Binding)

This was a good introductory book for CORBA, targeting readers with only elementary knowledge of operating systems and programming. Advanced readers who want to get an introduction to CORBA will find this book readable but unsatisfactory.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars It's not a book, it's a pamphlet., July 19, 1999

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Understanding Corba (Textbook Binding)

This skinny text barely skims CORBA's surface. It was written by a couple of software engineers at DEC, and it is just as dry and uninformative as any DEC manual. Reading this book, you may not learn much about CORBA, but you'll gain some insight as to why DEC is no longer around.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This isn't a book. It's a $50 pamphlet., July 20, 1999

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Understanding Corba (Textbook Binding)

"Understanding CORBA" was written by two software engineers at the now-defunct Digital Equipment Corp. This dinky book reads very much like a DEC manual from the "good old days": dry and uninformative. Reading the book may not give anyone much insight into CORBA, but it will give you an idea of why DEC is no longer around.