Features
- Cover Type: Paperback with 1120 pages
- Published by: Addison-Wesley Professional February 27, 1999
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 0201379279
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0201379273
-
Book Dimensions:
9.2 x 7.3 x 1.6 inches
- Weighs: 3.6 pounds
Product Review
Written for the experienced C++ developer facing real-world CORBA for the first time,
Advanced CORBA Programming with C++ is a useful guide to today's most popular standard for distributed computing.
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
Jon Biggar, Floorboard Software
It's positively great. We finally have something that actually covers the topic from the point of view of the standard, rather than a proprietary implementation.
Reader Reviews
I have worked extensively on ORB development, and I can honestly say that this is the only book I have seen that I refer to regularly other than the CORBA spec. It is the only text that is (mostly) current with the spec, and it provides real insights into many frequently asked CORBA questions, such as object reference identity and persistence, memory management, and the POA. 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.
Comment | |
(Report this)
Search for books at
