0.6 Structure of This Manual

Core

Chapter 1

The Object Model describes the computation model that underlies the CORBA architecture.

Chapter 2

CORBA Overview contains the overall structure of the ORB architecture and includes information about CORBA interfaces and implementations.

Chapter 3

OMG IDL Syntax and Semantics details the OMG interface definition language (OMG IDL), which is the language used to describe the interfaces that client objects call and object implementations provide.

Chapter 4

ORB Interface defines the interface to the ORB functions that do not depend on object adapters: these operations are the same for all ORBs and object implementations.

Chapter 5

Value Type Semantics describes the semantics of passing an object by value, which is similar to that of standard programming languages.

Chapter 6

Abstract Interface Semantics explains an IDL abstract interface, which provides the capability to defer the determination of whether an object is passed by reference or by value until runtime.

Chapter 7

The Dynamic Invocation Interface details the DII, the client's side of the interface that allows dynamic creation and invocation of request to objects.

Chapter 8

The Dynamic Skeleton Interface describes the DSI, the server's-side interface that can deliver requests from an ORB to an object implementation that does not have compile-time knowledge of the type of the object it is implementing. DSI is the server's analogue of the client's Dynamic Invocation Interface (DII).

Chapter 9

Dynamic Management of Any Values details the interface for the Dynamic Any type. This interface allows statically-typed programming languages such as C and Java to create or receive values of type Any without compile-time knowledge that the typer contained in the Any.

Chapter 10

Interface Repository explains the component of the ORB that manages and provides access to a collection of object definitions.

Chapter 11

Portable Object Adapter defines a group of IDL interfaces than an implementation uses to access ORB functions.

Interoperability

Chapter 12

Interoperability Overview describes the interoperability architecture and introduces the subjects pertaining to interoperability: inter-ORB bridges; general and Internet inter-ORB protocols (GIOP and IIOP); and environment-specific, interORB protocols (ESIOPs).

Chapter 13

ORB Interoperability Architecture introduces the framework of ORB interoperability, including information about domains; approaches to inter-ORB bridges; what it means to be compliant with ORB interoperability; and ORB Services and Requests.

Chapter 14

Building Inter-ORB Bridges explains how to build bridges for an implementation of interoperating ORBs.

Chapter 15

General Inter-ORB Protocol describes the general inter-ORB protocol (GIOP) and includes information about the GIOP's goals, syntax, format, transport, and object location. This chapter also includes information about the Internet interORB protocol (IIOP).

Chapter 16

DCE ESIOP - Environment-Specific Inter-ORB Protocol (ESIOP) details a protocol for the OSF DCE environment. The protocol is called the DCE Environment Inter-ORB Protocol (DCE ESIOP).

Interworking

Chapter 17

Interworking Architecture describes the architecture for communication between two object management systems: Microsoft's COM (including OLE) and the OMG's CORBA.

Chapter 18

Mapping: COM and CORBA explains the data type and interface mapping between COM and CORBA. The mappings are described in the context of both Win16 and Win32 COM.

Chapter 19

Mapping: OLE Automation and CORBA details the two-way mapping between OLE Automation (in ODL) and CORBA (in OMG IDL).
Note: Chapter 19 also includes an appendix describing solutions that vendors might implement to support existing and older OLE Automation controllers and an appendix that provides an example of how the Naming Service could be mapped to an OLE Automation interface according to the Interworking specification.

Chapter 20

Interoperability with non-CORBA Systems describes the effective access to CORBA servers through DCOM and the reverse.

Chapter 21

Interceptors defines ORB operations that allow services such as security to be inserted in the invocation path.

Appendix A

contains OMG IDL tags that can identify a profile, service, component, or policy.