Advanced CORBA(R) Programming with C++

After a quick tour of CORBA basics, the authors jump right in with a minimum skeleton application written in C++. From there, they provide truly extensive coverage of CORBA IDL, along with many tips for using IDL data types in C++. (They cover advanced features such as any, TypeCode, and DynAny later in the book.).

Next the book unveils its sample application--a distributed climate control system. Material on the Portable Object Adapter and the Object Life Cycle, including garbage collection strategies, rounds out this section. Additional chapters examine the details of Object Request Brokers (ORBs), including Internet Inter-ORB Protocol (IIOP), repositories, and binding. The authors also present CORBA's built-in APIs for Naming, Trading, and Event Services (including asynchronous event handling), which is most useful as reference material.

Final sections examine strategies for better scalability, including multithreading and optimizing network traffic for CORBA objects. The authors provide numerous short excerpts of C++ code, though it must be said that much of this book is reference material rather than a hands-on programming tutorial. --Richard Dragan

Product Description
Here is the CORBA book that every C++ software engineer has been waiting for. Advanced CORBA(r) Programming with C++ provides designers and developers with the tools required to understand CORBA technology at the architectural, design, and source code levels. This book offers hands-on explanations for building efficient applications, as well as lucid examples that provide practical advice on avoiding costly mistakes. With this book as a guide, programmers will find the support they need to successfully undertake industrial-strength CORBA development projects.

The content is systematically arranged and presented so the book may be used as both a tutorial and a reference. The rich example programs in this definitive text show CORBA developers how to write clearer code that is more maintainable, portable, and efficient. The authors' detailed coverage of the IDL-to-C++ mapping moves beyond the mechanics of the APIs to discuss topics such as potential pitfalls and efficiency. An in-depth presentation of the new Portable Object Adapter (POA) explains how to take advantage of its numerous features to create scalable and high-performance servers. In addition, detailed discussion of advanced topics, such as garbage collection and multithreading, provides developers with the knowledge they need to write commercial applications.

Other highlights

In-depth coverage of IDL, including common idioms and design trade-offs
Complete and detailed explanations of the Life Cycle, Naming, Trading, and Event Services
Discussion of IIOP and implementation repositories
Insight into the dynamic aspects of CORBA, such as dynamic typing and the new DynAny interfaces
Advice on selecting appropriate application architectures and designs
Detailed, portable, and vendor-independent source code

Most ORBs don't have the POA yet; they will by mid-2000. It was an important and correct decision by the authors to include it instead of the BOA, most of the details of which are vendor-specific anyway (that's why the POA exists). Note to BOA lovers: sorry, the BOA is no longer part of the spec. ORB vendors are free to keep it around, and many do, but it's only because they're nice. The POA is so vastly superior that the only reason you would use the BOA is if you have an existing code base to maintain.

This is not a book for beginners, grazers, or wanna-bes; it is a book for serious, working practitioners, and it works best as a reference (although you can read it cover to cover). It is also C++-specific; it is the best CORBA book available for any language, but programmers who don't know the CORBA interface language mappings in both C++ and another language will not know which parts are C++-specific and may be confused or frustrated. The CORBA C++ mapping is by far the most complex, so it makes sense to do this one, but be forewarned that the early chapters on the C++ language mapping will be of marginal use if you are not a C++ programmer. The POA section makes the POA sound harder than it is for most applications, and does not provide complete detail on POA policies and architecture, but it is close. Your alternative is to read the CORBA spec (a horrifying prospect for most people), or your ORB vendor's documentation (sometimes adequate, sometimes not).

Flaws? Yes. Alternatives? No. If you are a CORBA programmer and you don't like reading the CORBA spec, BUY THIS BOOK.


Well planned,focussed presentation of the topics-Very good   July 15, 1999
21 out of 22 found this review helpful

The book by Michi Henning and Steve Vinosky has hit the market at the right time. There is no other book that describes the programming aspects of Corba in such an elegant manner. In brief, this book is Very good, A must have kind of book, Targeted at intermediate level CORBA programmer (though I feel a beginner can certainly read it as far as that person has some good background in C++) The topic "Advanced programming...." may be a bit misleading because, this book talks much about the basic stuff of CORBA rather than on the advanced, and not frequently used features like DII,DSI etc. I see this book as the one with a very down-to-earth approach that gives a lot of precious details about CORBA programming, rather than some thing that talks about very advanced stuff. IMHO, all that one needs is just a good grasp of C++ inorder to follow this book. The plus points of this book ar: a) The presentation is very clear and focussed b) Explains the nitty-gritty details of CORBA programming c) Describes the latest POA in good detail - infact this book deals only with POA based approach d) Not based on any single vendor's product

There are no negative points as far as I could see. Topics like DII and DSI are not discussed. However, the authors clearly mentioned that they are not discussing DII etc in this book. On the whole, this book is very good and a must for any corba programmer. Well deserves all the five stars in the rating. Hope the authors include the other topics also (like DII,DSI etc) in the future editions


Thorough, well organized   November 3, 1999
Hongchol (Bellevue, WA)
17 out of 19 found this review helpful

I cannot believe that some people gave such poor review just because they coudln't get it. The book is titled as advanced so it's not supposed to be a book for novices. I don't have much knowledge of CORBA but find this books not so hard to follow. If you know C++ and want to learn CORBA, I think that this is a great book to read.


Outstanding - A CORBA Bible   September 15, 2000
Basker Mathrubootham (Atlanta, GA)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful

This book is one of the best that I have ever read on CORBA. The authors have wasted no time in explaining OO concepts/C++ and have jumped straight on to the job. This is something that indicates erudition. This book is certainly intended for an expert C++ programmer. I believe this has been done mainly to focus on CORBA rather than C++. All programming examples are well thought out. This is "The Book on CORBA" as Doug Schmidt says in the foreword. Looking forward to the next edition that would cover DSI, DII etc (preferably from the same authors). The word "advanced" in the title is misleading.


An excellent sourcebook for CORBA, even for Java.   April 7, 1999
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

My side of the CORBA equation is all written in Java. Nevertheless, This book has a tremendous amount of information about CORBA that is applicable to any programming language. It provides much detailed information about CORBA itself, the low-level protocol, message structures, object references, IIOP, etc.; more than any of the other major references that I have seen (Orfali & Harkey, Vogel & Duddy). Again, for a Java programmer, this book provides excellent insight into what is really happening beneath the covers (that Java so nicely provides). My peers who are doing C++ CORBA programming also think very highly of this book.