Re: [boost] CORBA iimplementation for Boost interest?

From: Stefano Delli Ponti (stefano.delliponti_at_[hidden])
Date: 2008-04-02 07:43:14

(Duplicated post, the previous one was not complete - sorry)

Hello Jon,

Jonathan Biggar wrote:
> I've been working on a C++ CORBA implementation for a long time.  I've
> considered making it open source in the past, but I hadn't seen the
> exact niche for it to fill.
> 
> Now that Boost 1.35 is out, including ASIO and the new Threads
> implementation, I'm considering retargeting my implementation to only
> use boost libraries for underlying services.
> 
> I'd be quite happy to contribute my implementation to boost, if there's
> enough interest for me to proceed.
> 
> So, what do you all think?
> 

That's wonderful!

(I am so happy also because I know, being a long-time CORBA user, the
expertise of Jonathan and his contributions to the standard).

Some considerations:

- I think that many on this list underestimate the importance that CORBA
has still today. For large client-server/distributed applications there
aren't yet many valid alternatives.
- The main benefit of CORBA is its cross-platform, cross-language
nature: our C++ distributed application is accessible through C++, Java,
 Python, COM, .Net in Solaris, Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
- There are very good open-source implementations, like TAO and OmniORB,
with great support facilities.
- The main drawback of CORBA is probably its awkward C++ binding (as Jon
said, there were many /historic/ reasons). I know that an effort for a
new binding began some months ago at OMG: I am not updated on that one.

TAO is a robust implementation based on ACE. ACE is a large C++ 
framework, which implements many network-related pattens. Boost is now 
entering the ACE's territory with a much more modern C++ perspective but 
it still lacks many features (waiting for pion-net/cpp-netib, log et 
al.). But, as Jon said, Boost has now the functionalities needed to 
build an ORB.

I see many benefits about a Boost ORB:
- A modern C++ implementation
- A place to experiment with new bindings and other things
- A large piece of code that reuse and test a lot of other Boost libraries

I would use such a beast immediately on the client-side.

So, let's do it.
I would be glad to contribute.

Regards,

Stefano