Re: ORBit2, IDL compiler improvements

[Sebastian Wilhelmi <wilhelmi ira uka de>]

Hi Elliot,

> Wow, I have some time to hack on ORBit now. I made an ORBit2 module in CVS
> where I would like to try and reorganize ORBit a bit to clean up the
> messes of the past. Some stuff will be rewritten (new libIIOP by
> Sebastian, IDL compiler marshalling/demarshalling), other pieces can be
> copied almost verbatim (IDL compiler generation of header files &
> typecodes, CORBA_any marshalling, the services), and other pieces will
> surive with some hacking (most of the ORB core). The reason for making a
> new CVS module instead of a branch on the existing one is to allow
> starting from a clean slate.
> 
> The goals I want to accomplish by the next major release are to make ORBit
> a lot nicer on embedded systems, to make it perfectly secure for use on
> exposed networks. Practically speaking these mean:
>         . Reduce footprint
>                 . Add multiple (de)marshalling mechanisms to the IDL
>                 compiler, such as Michael's thing to use the CORBA_any
>                 marshalling mechanism, and heuristics to let it choose
>                 the 'best' one for particular situations.
>                 . Run memprof on ORBit proggies.
>         . Make it faster (which is a goal of mine anyways :)
>         . Allow conditional compile-time inclusion of features
>         . Add bounds checking in the IDL compiler output.
>         . Add bounds checking in the orb code that handles incoming data,
>         and formally document + audit the untrusted data that gets
>         handled.
> 
> I also want to add multithreading & thread safety, just because it seems
> to be needed by others. Sebastian already has done some work in this area.
> 
> If you disagree with any of these ideas, please speak up - these are just
> the rantings of a hacker who is itching to turn the ORBit world upside
> down once again :)

Ok, that is good news. I suppose that such a dissection is best done by one
person (that is: you). If you've got any questions about my IIOP code or want
to delegate some tedious subtasks, feel free to mail me.

Bye,
Sebastian
-- 
Sebastian Wilhelmi                   |            här ovanför alla molnen
mailto:wilhelmi@ira.uka.de           |     är himmlen så förunderligt blå
http://goethe.ira.uka.de/~wilhelmi   |