Re: How to gnome/CORBA?

[Owen Taylor <owt1 cornell edu>]

Tom Tromey <tromey@creche.cygnus.com> writes:

> >> So OpenDoc fits the free software environment more so than a
> >> monolithic corporation, eh?  Now that the OpenDoc source is
> >> available, and OpenDoc is CORBA-compliant, perhaps we could use
> >> OpenDoc for our document model??
> 
> 
> We need an OpenDoc entry for the FAQ.
> 
> 
> >> Also, while on this subject, how will GNOME handle JavaBeans?
> 
> 
> My understanding is that we're going to look at the CORBA component
> model, once it is published.  That is expected in April (?).  It is
> supposedly based on OpenDoc, and interoperates with Java Beans.
> 
> Please correct me if I'm wrong.
> 
> I believe you can get a pre-final version of the spec from
> www.omg.org.

I think we have to decide whether we want a component model
or a document model. The CORBA component model, is in fact
a component model, like JaveBeans. As far as I could see,
it had very little relationship to OpenDoc, which is a
document model.

roughly speaking:

Component Model
---------------

A component model specifies GUI entities. These are generally
assembled into applications by a programmer, often via a "builder"
tool. A component model will typically have abstractions 
supporting such tools, and for communicating between components,
but specifies nothing about the contents of the components.

Examples: JavaBeans, VB/ActiveX controls


Document Model
--------------

A document model assumes that information comes in the form of
documents (such as printed pages, or web pages). These documents
are composed of different types of information (parts) in
a heirarchical manner. There is a distinction between the piece
of information (part) and the entity used to edit it (part editor).

A document model will have specialized abstractions for displaying
loading and saving documents, for setting menus, for editing
the parts, etc. 

Examples: OpenDoc, The original OLE.


There is obviously some overlap here. A document model could
possibly be implemented using a component model, and might have
components embedded within documents. (HTML forms, etc). But a 
document model is a much more sophisticated (and limited)
concept.

Regards,
                                        Owen