Re: OLE Discussion (was Re: Opendoc)

[Miguel de Icaza <miguel nuclecu unam mx>]

Hello Stephan,

> You can access objects, embedded in another object directly. In OLE2
> you have to doppleclick object after object until you reach the
> innermost you wanted (and each time a very big application is loaded).

I believe this was a shortcoming of OLE1 (at least that is what the
book on OLE2 has led me to believe).  

Now, the reason for requiring the "double-click" is that you want to
avoid launching a big application by mistake.  

I do not see how OpenDoc can be any smarter if it loads everything at
startup (and thus allows you to edit by simply clicking once).

> But my favorite is that OpenDoc honors the UNIX idea of small tools
> (objects), which serves a specialized task and works at best with
> other tools. OLE2 is designed to connect gigantic applications like
> Word, Execel and the like together. Ever tried to embed a corel
> graphic in an exel sheed in a word text?

Yes, that is correct, OLE2 is better suited for putting together big
applications.  That is exactly where Active-X enters the picture:
Active-X applications only implement a handful of interfaces, not all
of the OLE2 interfaces.

> And last but not least for a full featured OpenDoc class you have to
> implement about 50 or 60 methods - for a full featured OLE2 class itīs 
> over 100.

I can not really compare with OpenDoc, as my exposure to OpenDoc has
been reduced to reading a couple of the introductory papers in IBM's
site.  What I can tell is that OLE2 complexity comes from dealing with
a number of situations (and some extra complexity comes from the
broken of the Windows platform, but we can drop that stuff).

OpenDoc consists of 110 CORBA interfaces.  OLE2 consists of about 40
interfaces. 

> There are also much details i liked much more in OpenDoc than in
> OLE2, details which makes work much easier - but itīs a long time
> ago i last worked with it, so i canīt remember everything.

It would be very helpful to know what those details were.  My initial
work is to use OLE2 and adapt it for our needs.  If you can point us
exactly what is better done in OpenDoc than in OLE2, I will gladly use
your input.

Miguel.