Flic

Flick: The Flexible IDL Compiler Kit by University of Utah is an IDL compiler which uses techniques from traditional language compilers in order to produce very fast client/server communication code. Flick is both highly optimizing and also extremely flexible. Because Flick is a "kit" of components, it is easy to extend Flick to support new IDLs, message data formats, and transport mechanisms. Flick currently supports the CORBA, ONC RPC (Sun RPC), and MIG IDLs. Interfaces written in any of these languages can be implemented by CORBA-, ONC RPC-, or MIG-style C stub functions communicating via TCP, UDP, Mach 3 ports, or Fluke IPC. Flick is part of the Flux Operating System Project.

Fresco

Fresco by Fujitsu Advanced Software Lab is an object-oriented application programming interface (API) for graphical user interfaces, covering functionality in Xlib and Xt, and adding structured graphics and application embedding. Fresco uses CORBA 1.x for object distribution and provides an IDL for object definition. Fresco also provides support for Tcl-based scripting, multi-threading, resolution independence, and internationalization. It runs on Win32/NT and on various Unix platforms and can be downloaded free from this site.

IDL Documentation Generator

IDLDOC is a program developed at Sandia National Laboratories that accepts OMG IDL source code and writes HTML documentation for the contained definitions. It can be used to provide Web-accessible documentation for CORBA-compliant distributed objects. Free downloadable source code and executables are also provided at this site.

IDL to Modula-3 Translator

The IDL to Modula-3 translator can translate OMG IDL definitions into Modula-3 interfaces, which can be used to build "CORBA-compliant" distributed applications. The authors suggest to use DEC SRC's Modula-3 Network Objects, which are part of the DEC SRC Modula-3 3.1 (or later) release. A document that describes the Modula-3 Language Binding for OMG IDL is also included in the distribution (idl/doc/IDLM3-Mapping.ps). The source code (DEC SRC Modula-3, IDL to Modula-3 Tanslator) can be downloaded free.

JIDL

JIDL was developed at Sandia National Laboratories and provides the necessary magic to allow Java applets running in Java-enabled Web browsers to manipulate CORBA objects on remote servers as if they were local Java objects. JIDL works with Orbix using a generic (not object-specific) server-side script using TclDii. The current version of JIDL is to be considered early alpha and the development has stopped at this point.

OpenBase

Openbase by Prism Technologies provides tools that support the definition of objects and components, data modelling, specifying the behaviour of objects and generating the code which forms the implementation of the objects. Other OpenBase tools build applications and model the environment in which applications run. Interfaces to OpenBase objects are described in an interface definition language called OpenBase/CDL, which is a true superset of the CORBA IDL and is capable of processing any CORBA compliant interface definition.

PowerAda

PowerAda by OC Systems includes an IDL-to-Ada 95 compiler and uses SOMobjects as part of its object-oriented solution.

DataBroker

DataBroker by I-Kinetics, Inc. is a CORBA application object based on providing universal access for the CORBA-capable application to record-oriented data and applications which generate record-oriented data. DataBroker supports native access to Oracle and Sybase, ODBC drivers, multi-threading, MPP architectures. It is plug and play ready for IONA's Orbix, Netscape's Open Network Environment (ONE), Oracle's Network Computing Architecture (NCA), Visigenic's VisiBroker for Java, C++ and via CORBA's IIOP (Internet InterORB Protocol) with any CORBA 2.0-compliant enterprise application. The DataBroker acts as a location, language, platform, and data source independent broker with one standard recordset-oriented interface - the Universal Data Access Object model (UDAO). The UDAO model is provided via CORBA's Interface Definition Language (IDL). Developers apply the UDAO model for building client applications or new server objects that access relational and record-oriented data sources. The DataBroker brokers requests from clients or server objects over a network or the Internet, handling individual database and data source location, connections, and SQL/command execution.

Inter-ORB Engine

SunSoft provides the source code of it's portable implementation of the CORBA 2.0 mandatory "IIOP" interoperability protocol for networked ORBs. It is composed of four parts: a CDR marshalling engine, a TypeCode interpreter, the engine framework (includes a partial ORB implementation) and IIOP-specific modules. Download free source code (Release 1.4, 2. Feb. 1997, tar.gz, ~274K, zip, ~216K)

Jade

Jade by APM Ltd. is a software package written in the Java programming language which provides Web users with access to CORBA services via the Internet. Jade contains a machine independent CORBA 2.0 IIOP communications engine. This means the Jade software can be effortlessly downloaded via the Web and automatically installed into users' Web browsers.

Netscape ONE

Netscape ONE by Netscape Communications Corporation is an open network environment based on publicly defined standards, which lets developers and enterprises quickly and easily create robust, dynamic, cross-platform Inter/Intranet applications. It supports HTML, Java, JavaScript, the Netscape Internet Foundation Classes (IFC), the Internet Inter-ORB Protocol (IIOP), communication and collaboration protocols (HTTP, NNTP, SMTP, POP3), and a broad set of standard, scalable security services.

Tcliop

Tcliop by George Almási extends the popular TCL/Tk scripting language by enabling it to call CORBA services using the CORBA 2.0/IIOP (Internet Inter-Operability Protocol). Tcliop is exceedingly easy to use. There is exactly one new TCL command to learn before making calls to CORBA services. There is no code generation phase nor any compilation to be run before calling a CORBA service. Just start up the tcliop interpreter and type in CORBA commands! Tcliop binaries are free for academic or nonprofit use.

CHORUS/COOL

The CHORUS/COOL ORB by Chorus Systems is a CORBA 2.0 compliant Object Request Broker for Distributed Real-Time Embedded Systems. It is optimized for the CHORUS componentized operating system technology, but it also supports a variety of popular operating systems like SunOS, Linux, Windows NT/95. The CHORUS IDL Compiler (CHIC) generates standard C++ code. A free three month evaluation copy and the technical documentation can also be downloaded from this site.

Chorus Technical Document List from Chorus Systems contains papers and technical reports on Chorus/COOL and other related issues.

Corbus

Corbus by BBN Corporation is a CORBA 2.0 compliant, distributed, object-oriented system, with support for multithreaded servers and clusters (autonomous administrative domains) that provide scaleable object location and controlled sharing of services. It provides C, C++ and Common LISP (nonstandard) language bindings. Corbus is a reference implementation for validating commercial CORBA products used in US government contracts. Corbus is available free of charge in binary form for government and noncommercial use.

DAIS

DAIS by ICL is a set of CORBA based software tools to create and run a distributed application. The DAIS Run-time Libraries contain a CORBA conformant Object Request Broker (ORB). The DAIS ORB is distributed, resides within all client and server modules, is scalable on the whole network and avoids a single point of failure. DAIS supports the following languages: C, C++, Java, Cobol (in development) and Eiffel (in development).

Distributed Smalltalk (DST)

Distributed Smalltalk by ParcPlace-Digitalk, Inc. (formerly known as HP Distributed Smalltalk) supports the full OMG CORBA 2.0 specifications and the following CORBAservices: naming, event, lifecycle, transaction and concurrency. Advanced tools like a remote object debugger, a Smalltalk to IDL generator and an ORB monitor are also included.

DOME

DOME by Object-Oriented Technologies Ltd. is a high performance C++ toolkit for the implementation of Distributed Systems using the OMG CORBA architecture for Object Request Brokers. DOME is available free for personal use for PC-Linux machines.

Electra

Electra by Silvano Maffeis is a CORBA 2.0 ORB supporting the implementation of reliable distributed applications. Electra permits to combine equally-typed object implementations running on different machines to an object group. A CORBA object reference can be bound to an object group and requests will be transmitted by reliable multicast. Object groups can be used for active replication, efficient data distribution from one sender to many receivers, object migration, and for more. The replication degree of an Electra object can be increased dynamically at run time, while clients are firing operations that update the internal state of the objects. Objects that join a replication group automatically obtain a copy of the current internal state of the group members. Electra runs on communication subsystems like Horus and ISIS . Electra is publicly available in source code form.

Inter-Language Unification (ILU)

ILU from the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center is a multi-language object interface system. The object interfaces provided by ILU hide implementation distinctions between different languages, between different address spaces, and between operating system types. ILU can be used to build multi-lingual object-oriented libraries ("class libraries") with well-specified language-independent interfaces. It can also be used to implement ONC RPC or Xerox Courier services, or clients for existing ONC RPC or Xerox Courier services. ILU also includes an implementation of the CORBA Internet Inter-ORB Protocol (IIOP), and can be used to write CORBA services or clients, as well. It can also be used to define and document interfaces between the modules of non-distributed programs. ILU interfaces can be specified in either the OMG's CORBA Interface Definition Language (OMG IDL), or ILU's Interface Specification Language (ISL). ILU 2.0 supports the programming languages C++, ANSI C, Python, and will support Common Lisp. Download free source code (Release 2.0alpha8, tar.gz, ~2.2M, Release 2.0alpha9, tar.gz, ~3.9M)

The ILU Refence Manual provides comprehensive information on the concepts, interfaces and usage in different programming languages.

JacORB

The JacORB by Gerald Brose is an ORB written in Java. JacORB supports most of CORBA's static invocation features and allows multi-threaded clients and servers to written in Java. It offers full CORBA interoperability (IIOP) adn includes an implementation of the CORBA name service. Download free source code (Release 0.5d, tar.gz, ~507K)

Java IDL

The Java IDL by SunSoft allows you to define remote interfaces in the IDL interface definition language. These IDL definitions can then be compiled with the idlgen stub generator tool to generate Java interface definitions and Java client and server stubs. Java IDL is currently available on Win32/x86 and Solaris/SPARC. Java IDL alpha2.2 can be freely downloaded for evaluation and development use.

The Java IDL system is based on a portable Java ORB core which is structured to make it easy to plug in new ORB protocols. The idlgen stub generator produces stubs that are ORB independent, and which call into ORB specific protocol modules for all data marshaling or other ORB specific operations.

The Door ORB is a lightweight call/reply protocol implemented on top of TCP/IP. It is the initial default ORB for use with the alpha2 release of Java IDL.

Jorba

The Jorba by Roland Turner is an ORB completely written in Java. Jorba is currently (Jan. 97) in an early stage and will be published under the GNU Public License.

JYLU

JYLU (ILU for Java) by Scott W. Hassan is a freely available, freely distributable CORBA ORB (Object Request Broker) completely written in Java. More specifically, Jylu is an implementation of Xerox PARC's ILU runtime kernel and Java language binding completely in the Java language. It is on-the-wire compatible with ILU 2.0 (e.g. any ILU 2.0 client can call methods any Jylu true object and any Jylu surrogate can call methods any ILU 2.0 true object.) Download free source code (Release 0.14 - ILU 2.0alpha8 compatible, tar.gz, ~108K)

Network Enabled Objects (NEO)

Solaris NEO from SunSoft is a comprehensive operating environment that includes a networked object infrastructure (NEO Network with ORB), an advanced runtime environment for shared services (NEO Services), and administration and management tools (Solstice NEO).

Connectivity Between Windows and Solaris NEO (Technical White Paper, September 1995) describes how an OLE client (VisualBasic) can access NEO objects using the NEO interoperable Orbix technology. Download Postscript (gz, ~43K)

Joe includes an ORB which seamlessly connects Java applets to remote NEO objects running on any machine across the Internet. The Joe ORB is automatically downloaded into Web browsers along with Java applets and provides a full client-server session. Parts of Joe were known before as the Spring-Java IDL System.

Getting To Know Joe by Gabriel Minton (UnixReview, 1996) gives a short introduction to Joe programming and provides a simple Hello World! example.

ObjectBroker

The ObjectBroker by Digital Equipment Corporation is a CORBA 2.0 Object Request Broker with full CORBA compliant C++ language bindings. It allows unmodified CORBA objects to be accessed via OLE Automation, CORBA custom interfaces, and OLE custom interfaces. It also supports DCE'S Generic Security Services API (GSSAPI), which allows the use of both DCE-based security (kerberos) and other third-party authentication packages.

ObjectBroker: Digital's Implementation of CORBA by Digital at CERN contains CORBA links, papers, press releases and other information.

ObjectBus

ObjectBus by TIBCO Inc. is a CORBA 2.0-compliant ORB, which supports the publish-subscribe and the request-reply communication models. ObjectBus applications run on heterogeneous platforms, interoperating and sharing data in real-time across wide area and local networks.

ObjectDirector

ObjectDirector by Fujitsu Software Corporation is a distributed object environment which complies with OMG CORBA 2.0. It provides both an Object Request Broker and the Object Services which are required to build distributed object system across the network heterogeneous environment. It also provides mechanisms for interworking between OLE and ORB which complies to the COM/CORBA interworking specification, OMG IIOP, Java support, interworking function with mainframe by Transaction Service, and a replication function to develop high availability system. ObjectDirector supports a variety of popular operating systems like Solaris, HP-UX and Windows NT/95.

OmniBroker

OmniBroker by Object-Oriented Concepts, Inc. is a CORBA 2.0 compliant ORB with complete C++ language mapping and IIOP as native protocol. OmniBroker is is free for non-commercial use and comes with full source.

ORB Plus

ORB Plus by Hewlett Packard is a fully threaded implementation of the CORBA 2.0 specification and includes the following CORBAservices: Events, Naming, and Lifecycle. Developers in the HP-UX environment have at their disposal the additional capability of the DCE CIOP (Distributed Computing Environment Common Inter-ORB Protocol), which can be used as an alternative to the CORBA 2.0 IIOP. A special transport abstraction layer, part of the ORB Plus architecture, allows the DCE CIOP and the COBRA 2.0 IIOP to be used simultaneously. ORB Plus 2.5 software can be downloaded free for evaluation!

Orbix

Orbix from IONA Technologies is a full and complete implementation of CORBA. Orbix currently (July 1996) runs on 20 operating systems with seamless interworking garanteed across all supported platforms. Orbix also supports the QNX, pSOS and the VxWorks real-time operating systems.

Orbix/Smalltalk enables developers to build fully CORBA and IIOP conformant applications. The CORBAservices Naming, Lifecycle and Events are also included in the initial release of the product. Orbix/Smalltalk currently supports VisualWorks from ParcPlace-Digitalk, Inc. .

Orbix Desktop for Windows closely integrates Microsoft OLE and ActiveX technology with CORBA to provide interworking between the Component Object Model (COM) and CORBA.

OrbixWeb is a full Java implementation of Orbix . It has been specially modularised and optimized for operation over large networks. OrbixWeb 2.0 software can be downloaded free for evaluation! A Programming Guide with all the necessary steps to use OrbixWeb is also provided.

Orbix ObjectStore Adapter from IONA Technologies presents an overview on the integration of the Orbix ORB and the ObjectStore OODB. It enables Orbix objects to be stored by ObjectStore and to be retrieved as required by applications.

The Orbix-Versant Adapter (OVA) Whitepaper presents an overview on the integration of the Orbix ORB and the Versant OODB. Versant objects can be accessed through the Basic Object Adapter Implementation or the TIE approach. Download Whitepaper (Microsoft Word, zip, ~20K)

An Introduction to Orbix and ISIS presents the design goals and philosophy leading to a fault tolerant ORB based on Orbix and ISIS .

PowerBroker CORBAplus

PowerBroker CORBAplus by Expersoft is a comprehensive implementation of the CORBA 2.0 specification. It includes asynchronous requests, multi-threaded support and also delivers visual tools for editing the Interface Repository. PowerBroker CORBAplus is currently available for Windows 95/NT, Solaris, HP-UX and AIX.

PowerBroker CORBAplus for C++ and OLE automatically converts CORBA interfaces into OLE Automation interfaces for inclusion into Windows OLE applications. This implementation meets the OMG COM/CORBA Mapping specification, automating the interaction between OLE clients and CORBA objects. CORBAplus for OLE also gives Visual Basic programmers direct, transparent access to CORBA objects and services, providing Windows desktop clients with unprecedented levels of interoperability and flexibility.

PowerBroker CORBAplus for Smalltalk integrates CORBA IDL into the Smalltalk environment for ease-of-use and immediate programmer feedback and maps native Smalltalk collection classes to CORBA types automatically. CORBAplus for Smalltalk uses VisualWorks from ParcPlace-Digitalk, Inc. as the native Smalltalk engine.

PowerBroker CORBAplus for Java ia a CORBA 2.0-compliant Object Request Broker with Java to IDL language mapping support. PowerBroker CORBAplus for Java can be freely downloaded for evaluation and development use.

SmalltalkBroker

SmalltalkBroker by DNS Technologies, Inc. provides CORBA 2.0-compliant connectivity through the Smalltalk-based IDL compiler or ORB interoperability. It runs with a VisualWorks, VisualAge, IBM Smalltalk, or VisualSmalltalk development license and can connect applications running on any CORBA 2.0-compliant ORB, regardless of the language binding.

SOMobjects

SOMobjects form the basis for IBM's implementation of CORBA. SOM provides an object-structured protocol that allows applications to access and use objects, regardless of the programming language in which they are created (Derived class implementers can use different languages from those used by base class implementers).

SOMware at the Club by IBM Corporation is the official SOMobjects Home Page. The page provides the latest news and information on SOM and the Club. The SOMobjects Toolkit for AIX, OS/2, Windows 3.1/95/NT can be downloaded free!

IBM Distributed Smalltalk by IBM Corporation extends VisualAge for Smalltalk to support distribution of objects on different computers on a network using IBM's Distributed System Object Model (DSOM). These objects can send standard Smalltalk messages to one another, regardless of their physical location. They can also freely send other Smalltalk objects as arguments, and receive objects as results. The different parts of an application can be located on any computer in the network that is running IBM Distributed Smalltalk.

Introduction to SOMobjects by Roger Sessions provides a short overview on SOM and the SOM extensions to CORBA. This site also contains the SOMobjects Home Page by ObjectWatch, Inc. with WWW links, book and article lists and sample SOM programs.

SORBET

Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG licensed the NEO basic technology and has ported it as SORBET to their RM platform under UNIX. SORBET is a further component of Open Systems Direction (OSD). OSD is SNI's architectural framework for corporate client-server computing, integrating BS2000 mainframes, UNIX and MS Windows systems. The concept also includes tools for business modeling, analysis and design, development environments and class libraries for horizontal and vertical market segments.

The ACE ORB (TAO)

TAO (The ACE ORB) by Douglas C. Schmidt et al. is an ORB Endsystem Architecture that contains the network interface, operating system, communication protocol, and CORBA middleware mechanisms. TAO is a high-performance, real-time ORB with the current focus on policies and mechanisms for dispatching CORBA requests in hard real-time avionics systems.

TME 10

TME 10 by Tivoli Systems, Inc. consists of a comprehensive, interoperable suite of applications that addresses client/server systems management. The core technology of the TME architecture is an ORB that conforms with the OMG/CORBA specification. Tivoli's object-oriented, distributed platform offers the most efficient way to provide scalability for enterprise management and to hide the differences between heterogeneous systems.

Universal Network Architecture Services (UNAS)

UNAS by TRW Inc. for C++ and Ada 95 is an implementation of CORBA and supports the OMG Naming Service. A CASE tool, which can import CORBA IDL files, simplifies the design of distributed software architectures.

VisiBroker

The VisiBroker family features an agent based, multi-threaded architecture with automatic configuration and smart binding. It also provides load balancing and high availability, enabling easy object migration and replication.

VisiBroker for C++ by Visigenic Software, Inc. (formerly called ORBeline) is a CORBA 2.0 Object Request Broker with a native implementation of the IIOP protocol. A free demo version can be downloaded. The Technical Overview provides a brief tutorial for developing CORBA applications with VisiBroker for C++.

VisiBroker for Java by Visigenic Software, Inc. (formerly called Black Widow) is a CORBA 2.0 Object Request Broker written completely in Java with a native implementation of the IIOP protocol. It consists of a development and a run-time component. A free demo version can be downloaded. Tutorials and Troubleshooting gives a brief introduction in writing VisiBroker for Java applications and applets, using Dii and the TIE mechanism, a FAQ, a trouble-shooting guide and other useful information.

Visigenic Technical Publications provides the VisiBroker for C++/Java programmers and reference guides.

GOMscript

GOMscript by Bela Ban is an object-oriented, C++-like interpreter for manipulating CORBA SOMobjects instances. It is based on GOM which is a toolkit for managing instances from several object models.

OpenDoc

The OpenDoc component software architecture is a set technologies and services attempting to provide a cross-plattform component software development environment. The OpenDoc Toolkit for Windows 95/NT, OS/2 Warp, AIX and the OpenDoc Toolkit for MacOS can be downloaded free. OpenDoc uses SOMobjects for object distribution.

OrbBrowser

OrbBrowser by Bill Burke allows to dynamically bind to and browse any Orbix object. All objects attributes can be viewed and any methods can be invoked dynamically by typing in the wanted parameter. Most IDL types are supported through a user-friendly interface.

TclDii

TclDii was developed at the Concurrent Engineering Research Center and extends the functionality of Tcl by enabling Tcl scripts to send requests to CORBA services. TclDii is implemented in C++ and built on top of the Orbix client library. It can be used as a library or an application and the source code is free available.

Web/Enable

Web/Enable by Black & White Software, Inc. encompasses industry standard Java and CORBA IIOP to provide an infrastructure for building or migrating applications that function across the Internet and corporate intranets. With Web/Enable, servers can be created and registered with the CORBA Object Request Broker (ORB). The servers can then be accessed from within Web/Enable to easily create client applications or applets in Java or C++. Web/Enable contains OrbixWeb.

This page was created by Wolfgang Lugmayr ; last modification: Tue Mar 4 11:02:19 MET 1997