CORBA definition and more information

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gk - 13 Feb 2007 08:46 GMT

Hi,
here is a tutorial on CORBA

What is CORBA? What does it do?

CORBA is the acronym for Common Object Request Broker
Architecture, OMG's open, vendor-independent architecture and
infrastructure that computer applications use to work together over
networks. Using the standard protocol IIOP, a CORBA-based program from
any vendor, on almost any computer, operating system, programming
language, and network, can interoperate with a CORBA-based program
from the same or another vendor, on almost any other computer,
operating system, programming language, and network.

CORBA is an architecture .....its somewhat like a design then . who
implements this design ? whats the name of that implementation ? is
it implemented in C++ or in Java ?

say , I have an Application-1 written in Language X in machine-1 and
i have another Application-2 written in Language Y in
machine-2.....can CORBA help me to data exchange ? it seems it can
according to the tutorial .

do i need to write CORBA1 in machine1 and CORBA2 in machine2 ? and
they will talk via IIOP .....is it correct ?

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Thomas Richter - 13 Feb 2007 12:36 GMT

> CORBA is an architecture .....its somewhat like a design then .

No. Corba is an OMG standard that is implemented by various vendors. It
is a middle-ware: You use it as an ingreedient in a larger software.
CORBA is a remote-function call interface, you can call methods of
objects whose code is not running on the local, but on a remote machine.

> who implements this design ?

The vendor of your favourite ORB.

> whats the name of that implementation ?

That's up to the vendor. There's an ORB (the software that implements
the CORBA specification) provided by Sun within Java (not exactly a
high-quality implementation, though), there are GPL implementations like
the omniorb, and commercial ORBs like Orbix or Orbacus.

> is it implemented in C++ or in Java ?

The ORB? In whatever language your vendor choose to implement the specs.
Thus, in Java, or in C++, or in C, or in... Yes, there is an ORB for
Java.

> say , I have an Application-1 written in Language X in machine-1 and
> i have another Application-2 written in Language Y in
> machine-2.....can CORBA help me to data exchange ?

Yes. Machine-1 can call methods of objects located in machine-2 and
retrieve the results back from this machine. The language doesn't
matter. I (here) call C++ objects from Java, remotely.

> it seems it can according to the tutorial .

Yes.

> do i need to write CORBA1 in machine1 and CORBA2 in machine2 ?

You don't write the ORB, at least not usually. You pick one. What you do
is to write the interface specifications of your objects in a language
called "IDL", compile that IDL to whatever language your ORB is written
in (e.g. idlj will generate Java code), and then implement your objects
whose interface has been described in the IDL specs.

> and they will talk via IIOP .....is it correct ?

Yes, but that's rather irrelevant. You don't need to care about the
communications protocol, at least not usually.

So long,
Thomas

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CORBA definition and more information

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