Advanced CORBA(R) Programming with C++ (Paperback)

~ (Author), Steve Vinoski (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Written for the experienced C++ developer facing real-world CORBA for the first time, Advanced CORBA Programming with C++ is a useful guide to today's most popular standard for distributed computing.

After a quick tour of CORBA basics, the authors jump right in with a minimum skeleton application written in C++. From there, they provide truly extensive coverage of CORBA IDL, along with many tips for using IDL data types in C++. (They cover advanced features such as any, TypeCode, and DynAny later in the book.).

Next the book unveils its sample application--a distributed climate control system. Material on the Portable Object Adapter and the Object Life Cycle, including garbage collection strategies, rounds out this section. Additional chapters examine the details of Object Request Brokers (ORBs), including Internet Inter-ORB Protocol (IIOP), repositories, and binding. The authors also present CORBA's built-in APIs for Naming, Trading, and Event Services (including asynchronous event handling), which is most useful as reference material.

Final sections examine strategies for better scalability, including multithreading and optimizing network traffic for CORBA objects. The authors provide numerous short excerpts of C++ code, though it must be said that much of this book is reference material rather than a hands-on programming tutorial. --Richard Dragan

Review

Henning and Vinoski have written the book on CORBA with C++. -- Douglas C. Schmidt, Washington University, St. Louis

It's positively great. We finally have something that actually covers the topic from the point of view of the standard, rather than a proprietary implementation. -- Jon Biggar, Floorboard Software

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Product Details

• Paperback: 1120 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional (February 27, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201379279
• ISBN-13: 978-0201379273
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #305,236 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The only alternative is to read the CORBA spec, January 26, 2000

By	Willie the Shake "synthus" (Mountain Lakes, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

I have worked extensively on ORB development, and I can honestly say that this is the only book I have seen that I refer to regularly other than the CORBA spec. It is the only text that is (mostly) current with the spec, and it provides real insights into many frequently asked CORBA questions, such as object reference identity and persistence, memory management, and the POA.

Most ORBs don't have the POA yet; they will by mid-2000. It was an important and correct decision by the authors to include it instead of the BOA, most of the details of which are vendor-specific anyway (that's why the POA exists). Note to BOA lovers: sorry, the BOA is no longer part of the spec. ORB vendors are free to keep it around, and many do, but it's only because they're nice. The POA is so vastly superior that the only reason you would use the BOA is if you have an existing code base to maintain.

This is not a book for beginners, grazers, or wanna-bes; it is a book for serious, working practitioners, and it works best as a reference (although you can read it cover to cover). It is also C++-specific; it is the best CORBA book available for any language, but programmers who don't know the CORBA interface language mappings in both C++ and another language will not know which parts are C++-specific and may be confused or frustrated. The CORBA C++ mapping is by far the most complex, so it makes sense to do this one, but be forewarned that the early chapters on the C++ language mapping will be of marginal use if you are not a C++ programmer. The POA section makes the POA sound harder than it is for most applications, and does not provide complete detail on POA policies and architecture, but it is close. Your alternative is to read the CORBA spec (a horrifying prospect for most people), or your ORB vendor's documentation (sometimes adequate, sometimes not).

Flaws? Yes. Alternatives? No. If you are a CORBA programmer and you don't like reading the CORBA spec, BUY THIS BOOK.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well planned,focussed presentation of the topics-Very good, July 15, 1999

By A Customer

The book by Michi Henning and Steve Vinosky has hit the market at the right time. There is no other book that describes the programming aspects of Corba in such an elegant manner. In brief, this book is Very good, A must have kind of book, Targeted at intermediate level CORBA programmer (though I feel a beginner can certainly read it as far as that person has some good background in C++) The topic "Advanced programming...." may be a bit misleading because, this book talks much about the basic stuff of CORBA rather than on the advanced, and not frequently used features like DII,DSI etc. I see this book as the one with a very down-to-earth approach that gives a lot of precious details about CORBA programming, rather than some thing that talks about very advanced stuff. IMHO, all that one needs is just a good grasp of C++ inorder to follow this book. The plus points of this book ar: a) The presentation is very clear and focussed b) Explains the nitty-gritty details of CORBA programming c) Describes the latest POA in good detail - infact this book deals only with POA based approach d) Not based on any single vendor's product

There are no negative points as far as I could see. Topics like DII and DSI are not discussed. However, the authors clearly mentioned that they are not discussing DII etc in this book. On the whole, this book is very good and a must for any corba programmer. Well deserves all the five stars in the rating. Hope the authors include the other topics also (like DII,DSI etc) in the future editions

25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Timely book, covers material well. Could be better organised, November 9, 1999

By A Customer

This is an advanced book, which definitely assumes C++ knowledge. Mere mortals with only a basic knowledge of C++ or a Java background will have real trouble with this book. Beginners to CORBA would probably also need to utilise some more basic tutorial material before getting too deeply into this book.

The content is very close to the current state of the art from the OMG. In some areas it even prempts proposals (eg some CORBA services) that have not yet been approved; this is both a potential trap for the unwary and useful information for those who need to be aware of what is probably coming over the horizon. The coverage of more established CORBA services (naming, trader, and event services) is a useful reference.

This book only considers the POA, and ignores the superseded BOA. That limits the value of this book for those charged with maintaining older systems, particularly those with servers implemented using the older BOA.

Organisation of the book could be improved. There were a number of instances of forward referencing in earlier chapters which makes it difficult to extract information. Some sections merged a number of bits of information together, and became a bit confusing. This disjoint information flow reflects the nature of the formal OMG offering, but it would have been nice to see the material organised more clearly than that! After all, most who buy this book will have been exposed to some material from the OMG, and found it tough going.

Despite the rather critical review above, I have found this book to be an extremely valuable resource on a complex topic. It is also, at this time, the best available in its class. My copy is already well thumbed, and will become more so.