A vague future plan for Bonobo / ORBit2.

[Michael Meeks <michael ximian com>]

	I seem to remember promising this at some stage, either way it
is subject to change and time constraints etc. etc.


First a bit about ORBit2:

	* Drasticaly reduced exposed API, the stubs / skels / common
	  only use these methods:

gpointer       ORBit_small_alloc       (CORBA_TypeCode      tc);
gpointer       ORBit_small_allocbuf    (CORBA_TypeCode      tc,
					CORBA_unsigned_long length);
void           ORBit_small_freekids    (CORBA_TypeCode      tc,
					gpointer            p,
					gpointer            d);

void           ORBit_small_invoke_stub (CORBA_Object        object,
					ORBit_IMethod      *m_data,
					gpointer            ret,
					gpointer           *args,
					CORBA_Context       ctx,
					CORBA_Environment  *ev);

	* Hopefuly this will be augmented by a simplified and more
	  efficient object instantiation mechanism.

	* The actual impl finding and invocation mechanism needs to
	  be virtualized, but when this is done we will have protocol
	  independance, and the freedom to bridge in-proc trivialy.

	* The interface description interface needs more work, but
	  can provide and allow easy transfer of full interface
	  descriptions for ( remote and local ) scripting bindings.


Future - post Gnome 2.0 plans:


	* Split the CORBA_allocation / rich, structured type system
	  into a separate library, remove the glib dependency here -
	  or alternatively find / use an existing type representation,
	  NB. here it would be good to handle pointer types as well so
	  we can support DCE[1] eg.

	* With the above entry points, it should be relatively easy
	  to move away from ORBit2 if neccessary to some new system.

	* Furthermore, if - by some idl compiler switch, we can
	  create a 'single inheritance' mode, we can move towards
	  a far faster method invocation process. This would also
	  allow for dynamic stub/skel loading on remoting, and thus
	  a high level of thinness.


So, there are my goals, just so everyone knows.

	Regards,

		Michael.

[1] - /me only just realized how funky DCE is after talking to Luke
Leighton.


-- 
 mmeeks gnu org  <><, Pseudo Engineer, itinerant idiot