Description:
CORBA--the Common Object Request Broker Architecture--is a widely used distributed system standard that uses object-oriented concepts to describe how complex computing tasks can be divided between heterogeneous networked hardware platforms. Often, CORBA is implemented as a redundant, fail-safe, designed/patterned system environment in which a task can dynamically redistribute execution of subtasks when hardware components fail. Distributed programs survive crashes of individual machines--they're elegant, very sexy, and best if learned by example instead of theory. Arno Puder and Kay Römer knew that theoretical discussion of distributed operating systems could become hopelessly esoteric. So, in order to fulfill a dream of writing a textbook about CORBA, they set out to implement it first. The result is MICO, a GPL open-source tool based on the CORBA standard. And their goal of writing the textbook is realized in MICO: An Open Source CORBA Implementation, an elegant introduction to distributed computing with the hands-on didactic approach. By adopting the attitude that less is more, the authors have crafted a slim volume that provides a complete pathway from downloading, building, and installing MICO on a UNIX or Windows machine to appreciating conceptual graphs --a theory developed to model the syntax of natural language, whose implementation is demonstrated as an interactive conceptual graph editor written in Java. The book is filled with figures and annotated code snippets. The accompanying CD contains mico-2.3.2.tar.gz, which unfortunately does not compile out of the box, due to errors in the configure script. After a short tutorial on CORBA, the authors focus on the implementation of the object request broker, the interface repository, basic and portable object adapters, and the interface definition language (IDL). A chapter is dedicated to mapping the IDL syntax onto C++. While initial knowledge of object-oriented design concepts makes the going easier, Puder and Römer have written an excellent, short introduction to distributed systems concepts in general, and to one free implementation in particular. --Peter Leopold
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