The CTDP Connectivity Technology Guide Version 0.2.0 February 25, 2001

Introduction

This section is under construction and this document is not yet complete!

Distributed object computing allows objects that are distributed across a network on various computers to operate in a coordinated unified manner.

Connectivity technologies allow programs on a given computer to run routines or access objects on another remote computer. Connectivity technologies include:

• CORBA - Common Object Request Broker Architecture from OMG.
• DCOM - Distributed Component Object Modules from Microsoft.
• RMI - Remote Method Invocation is a JAVA Technology allowing a computer to run object methods on a remote computer.
• RPC - RPC, defined by RFC 1057, is a set of function calls used by a client program to call functions in a remote server program.

The client uses an interface to invoke a service from a remote distributed object. An Interface Definition Language (IDL) is used to define the remote object's interface which allows clients to access the remote object server's methods. This serves as a contract between the server and the remote or local clients.