Distributed Objects Everywhere: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|Distributed computing project by Sun Microsystems}}

'''Distributed Objects Everywhere''' ('''DOE''') was a long-running [[Sun Microsystems]] project to build a [[distributed computing]] environment based on the [[CORBA]] system in the 'back end' and [[OpenStep]] as the user interface. First started in 1990 and announced soon thereafter, it remained [[vaporware]] for many years before it was finally released as '''NEO''' in 1995. It was sold for only a short period before being dropped (along with OpenStep) in 1996. In its place is what is today known as [[Enterprise JavaBeanJavaBeans]]s.

== Background ==

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Oddly, the differences between any two [[programming language]]s on a single platform was almost as great. Each language had its own format for passing parameters into [[procedure call]]s, the file formats that they generated were often quite different. In general terms, it was not always possible to write different portions of a program in different languages, although doing so often has real utility. The problem was not so acute on [[minicomputer]]s and mainframes where the vendor often specified standards for their libraries, but on microcomputers the programming systems were generally delivered by a variety of 3rd party companies with no interest in standardization.

Nevertheless, this problem was being addressed in the early 1990s through the introduction of various [[shared library]] systems. These were actually intended to ease resource use on smaller platforms, by allowing a number of programs using a common resource, like the GUI, to share a single copy of code instead of each loading a separate copy into memory. As a side effect of being able to be called from many programs, these systems also defined a standard way to call them, using an [[interface definition language]], or IDL, to allow any language on the platform to understand the code inside the library.

Extending these systems to support [[remote procedure call]]s behind the scenes was seen as a natural evolution, providing a solution to the client/server programming problem. At the time there were a number of major projects to deliver such a system, including [[IBM]]'s [[System Object Model]] (SOM/DSOM), [[NeXT]]'s [[Portable Distributed Objects]], [[Microsoft]]'s [[Component Object Model]] (COM/DCOM) and many [[CORBA]] flavors. Sun, attempting to position itself as the future IBM in terms of backoffice support, felt they had to attack this market as well.

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By the time DOE, now known as NEO, was released in 1995,<ref>{{cite press release

|publisher= Sun Microsystems, Inc.

|date= September 20, 1995

|url= http://www.sun.com/smi/Press/sunflash/1995-09/sunflash.950920.1420.xml

| archiveurl = httphttps://web.archive.org/web/20070311022126/http://www.sun.com/smi/Press/sunflash/1995-09/sunflash.950920.1420.xml

| archivedate = 2007-03-11

|title= SunSoft Introduces NEO, the Industry's First Complete Networked Object Computing Environment

|accessdate= 2006-12-13

}}</ref> Sun had already moved on to [[Java (programming language)|Java]] as their next big thing. Java was now the GUI of choice for client-side applications, and Sun's OpenStep plans were quietly dropped (see [[Lighthouse Design]]). NEO was re-positioned as a Java system with the introduction of the "Joe" framework,<ref>{{cite press release

|publisher= Sun Microsystems, Inc.

|date= March 26, 1996

|url= http://www.sun.com/smi/Press/sunflash/1996-03/sunflash.960326.13870.xml

| archiveurl = httphttps://web.archive.org/web/20070320052957/http://www.sun.com/smi/Press/sunflash/1996-03/sunflash.960326.13870.xml

| archivedate = 2007-03-20

|title= Sun Announces Product that Connects Java to Business Applications

|accessdate= 2006-12-13

}}</ref> but it saw little use. Components of NEO and Joe were eventually subsumed into [[Enterprise JavaBeans]].<ref>{{cite web

|url = http://sunsite.uakom.sk/sunworldonline/swol-11-1997/swol-11-neo.html

|title = Goodbye NEO, hello Enterprise Java Beans

|accessdate = 2013-05-01

|author = Robert McMillan

|author2=Niall McKay

|date = November 14, 1997

|work = SunWorld

}}</ref>

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==External links==

* {{cite journal

|last1=Shah |first1=Rawn

{{cite journal

|date=1996-06-01 |df=mdy

| quotes =

|url=https://www.infoworld.com/article/2077168/distributed-object-computing-with-joe-and-neo.html

| last = Shah

| title = Distributed Object Computing with Joe and NEO

| first = Rawn

| journal = [[JavaWorld]]

| date = June 1, 1996

| accessdate = 20062020-1207-1315

| title = Distributed Object Computing with Joe and NEO

}}

| journal = JavaWorld

| url = http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-06-1996/jw-06-exceptions.html

| accessdate = 2006-12-13

}}

[[Category:Common Object Request Broker Architecture]]

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[[Category:Application programming interfaces]]

[[Category:Sun Microsystems software]]

[[Category:Vaporware]]