I looked into a Squeak ORB last summer for a while and then got preoccupied
with other business and let it drop. The issues that looked most
challenging involved weak arrays and some kind of parser generation
capability. I think the parser could be avoided if one wanted to build a
simple ORB that required a CORBA Interface Repository in its neighborhood
from which to get the IDL definitions. DST and SmalltalkBroker both
support this kind of centralized repository approach and it works well in
an enterprise environment. For single user hackers, however, it might be
too limited. The weak array is a bit more challenging to code around, as
ORB registration of a Smalltalk object is not strong by definition and the
ORB needs to hold onto these objects. Some people have volunteered to look
into the Squeak GC, but again no concrete progress.
As of Squeak 2.3, we'll have weak arrays. Unfortunately, we still don't have TGen. I don't know anything about CORBA, but it sounds like it's do-able now. Mark Guzdial
Some material about Smalltalk and the "Simple Object Access Protocol" SOAP might also be interesting for visitors of this page. Mark Guzdial
During a recent bout with temporary insanity, I downloaded and read through (ok, skimmed) the full specification for CORBA 3.0.2. It really doesn't look that bad. It's big, sure, but I can see a clear path for an implementation. I've started a pass at it using the temporary roadmap I've put on the page A Squeak ORB and am about 1/2 way through the typecode implementation. More news as it happens. John Dougan
