Common Object Request Broker Architecture: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 08:07, 14 August 2002

Revision as of 08:09, 14 August 2002

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'''CORBA''' or <i>'''C'''ommon '''O'''bject '''R'''equest '''B'''roker '''A'''rchitecture</i> defines the [[API]]s, communication protocol, and object/service information models to enable hetreogenous applications written in various languages running on various platforms to interoperate.

In a general sense CORBA "wraps" code written in another language, almost always [[C plus plus|C++]], into a bundle containing additional information on the capabilities of the code inside, and how to call it. The resulting wrapped objects can then be called from other programs (or CORBA objects) over the network. In this sense CORBA can be considered as a machine-readable documentation format, similar to a [[header file]] but with considerably more information. These sorts of systems are generally referred to as [[Interface Definition Language]]s, or ''IDL's''.

These sorts of systems are generally referred to as [[Interface Definition Language]]s, or ''IDL's'', of which CORBA is only one example, COM is another. In theory the use of an IDL should provide language independance for the code used to implement the object, but in practice the IDL often takes on characteristics of one target language. Such is the case for CORBA, which is used almost exclusively with [[C plus plus|C++]].

CORBA is more than just a language, platform neutral remote procedure call specification. It defines commonly needed services such as transactions and security.