Re: ORBit status?

[Tom Tromey <tromey cygnus com>]

David> I've got the latest ORBit sources from CVS, and to say the
David> least it looks preliminary, and I don't see much sign of active
David> development.

There is development, but not on a daily basis.  My understanding is
that Dick Porter and Elliot Lee are doing most of the work (forgive me
if I left somebody out).

David> If I was develop it, I'd pretty much be starting from scratch
David> (though of course looking carefully through what's already
David> there for inspiration).

Is there something wrong with ORBit as it now stands?


David> - Given the above, a client stub can just be a shared library
David> containing an object implementation which happens to convert
David> method calls into on-the-wire GIOP requests, just as DCOM/DSOM
David> do it.

I think this is part of the current ORBit plan.  See the file
`ORBit/docs/IDEA1' (which explains the idea, but just barely).

David> - Support for asynchronous object requests, i.e. the out
David> parameters and return value of a method call get passed to the
David> client using a callback. Anyone who's seen graphical programs
David> freeze while they use the Unix DNS interface will appreciate
David> why this is useful. Threading is in many ways the preferred
David> approach, but an event-based approach can fit more cleanly into
David> existing single-threaded programs.

The approach ILU takes is to reenter the event loop while waiting for
a return value.  The callback model doesn't gain you anything over
this, unless you don't want the ORB to know about the event loop.  I
think it is easier and cleaner to each the ORB implementation about
event loops than it is to write apps in a strange style.

Tom