Re: [orbit] C++ Mapping

[Bowie Owens <bowie owens csiro au>]

mlunzena uni-osnabrueck de wrote:

> Hello!
>
> As I am going to write some parts of my application in C++ (required by
> the neural networks implementation I have to use), I was just wondering
> about the status of the Orbit C++ Mapping:
> http://orbitcpp.sourceforge.net/
>
> I would like to get some feedback about usability and maturity of that
> code (esp. about problems, major bugs ...).
>  
To begin with there is an orbitcpp specific list. I've CC'ed it in this 
response. So let's continue the discussion there.

Usability, we aim to follow the corba spec as closely as possible. As 
such the code that you write should be portable across different orbs. 
I've worked with both orbitcpp and mico and found that I had to make 
only minor changes when switching between the two. I personally find 
orbit easier to work with orbitcpp as far makefiles and build 
environment goes because pkg-config makes things pretty easy. You can of 
course use the orbit C bindings directly from C++ but you probably find 
it much easier to work the C++ bindings if you are used to C++.

Maturity, for common tasks orbitcpp is quite reliable. Since it is a 
thin wrapper around the C implementation orbitcpp is as stable and 
reliable as ORBit when it comes to the underlying communication. There 
are a few areas where the wrapper is not written properly and this 
introduces a lack of reliability. This tends to be the case with 
features that the developers have never used in their projects. One area 
which I know about is union support. You can take a look at bugzilla to 
find out about the open bugs. There is even a link off the 
orbitcpp.sourceforge.net web page. That said most problems with the 
wrapper are pretty easy to fix if there is a clear and simple test case. 
So for most projects there really aren't any major problems with orbitcpp.

I'm the only developer at the moment. I'll be putting out a new release 
of orbitcpp shortly. So the project is still active.


--
Bowie Owens

CSIRO Mathematical & Information Sciences
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email  : Bowie Owens csiro au