On Aug 22, 1:58 am, ap...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:
> Orbix 3.0.1. Yes I know. please don't laugh. I am working on a project
> where I have to find a way to move off these ancient products. I have
> managed to move away from C++ onto java but cannot change the CORBA
> product in use at the moment. The Orbix setup includes OrbixWeb which
> has always been used on the client side. I am now going to be using it
> on the server side. So my question is: What are peoples experiences of
> OrbixWeb compared to Orbix 3.0.1? I have found the C++ Orbix at that
> ancient version to be quite buggy but I am hoping the OrbixWeb side is
> more reliable. Certainly we seem to have far fewer problems on the
> client side. Server-side problems include:
First, Orbix and OrbixWeb are 2 *different* products. The only thing
they share is the name. In a nutshell, if you've switched languages,
then you've *changed* the CORBA product! As far as I know, they don't
share any code. One is written in C++, the other Java.
My experience matches yours. OrbixWeb was as buggy a piece of junk as
Orbix 3.X. Given that it's an ancient product, and that there are far
better orbs out there, e.g. JacORB, I don't understand why you insist
on sticking with OrbixWeb. There's no technical reason you can't move
to JacORB, a superior *free* orb with a fairly active developer
community.
>
> Hanging on a blocking socket write when sending an invocation of a one-
> way (I know one-ways use TCP/IP, not UDP).
>
> Occasional core dumps when dispatching callbacks (one-way methods on
> client-side object reference). Stack trace shows it has blown up
> inside Orbix.
>
> efence errors when Orbix starts up. The error is from inside ORB_init.
> This has prevented me from using efence to find any memory corruption
> issues.
>
> When the client goes away the C++ version seems to have trouble when
> it tries to invoke a callback. The java version just gets
> COMMS_FAILURE immediately which is what I would expect. This makes me
> think OrbixWeb may be more reliable.
>
> My impression is that OrbixWeb is a complete product on the side of
> Orbix that just happened to get ****pped together with the C++ Orbix. I
> think this is a good thing since it helps sup****t mixed language
> programming, which is sometimes needed (I am addressing this need by
> using C and SWIG to give me a java-callable interface). So it could be
> that the java work has been independent enough for there to be fewer
> problems. Certainly I do not expect the same kinds of memory mgmt
> issues. I wonder what other people using Orbix(Web) have found?
I think you'll find that practically *nobody* uses OrbixWeb. 'Notice
how few responses you're getting to your questions? Granted, this
usenet group doesn't get the traffic it once did, but you'll be hard
pressed to find any recent discussion of OrbixWeb. IMHO, OrbixWeb was
slapped together by Iona at the beginning of the Java craze nearly 10
years ago, at a time when Iona was beginning to move away from CORBA
towards the EJB/J2EE market. When they failed to capture market share
in that area, they jumped on the SOAP/Web Services bandwagon. At that
time, CORBA was viewed by many as a "dead" technology (read: not
buzzword compliant), and it was apparent that Iona wasn't investing
much in its core CORBA products. They eventually purchased Orbacus. My
gut feeling is that they did this to see what a real orb looked
like. ;-)
Through Orbix 3.x, Iona's products were generally crap. I swear that
their patch numbers read like pi. It seemed that every time we
received a patch to fix one problem, it broke 2 other things. Their
quality control was basically non-existent. However, since there was
no viable commercial alternative at the time (Visigenics was
struggling), we had little choice but to stick with OrbixWeb. However,
it got so bad that we eventually dropped Orbix and wrote our own orb.
How bad do you think it has to get for someone to consider writing
their own middleware?
Now, I'll admit that I get a chance to check out Orbix 2000, which I
understand was a complete rewrite from the ground up of Orbix, led by
Steve Vinoski. From what I've heard it wasn't half bad, but by that
time the CORBA market was at a standstill.
Mark
>
> Regards,
>
> Andrew Marlow
|
