From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.1 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_05,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,a4a373312601ca4b X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: David Botton Subject: Re: CompUSA New Policy Date: 1999/02/28 Message-ID: <36D9FE97.E90F8317@Botton.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 449728084 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit References: <36CC64A1.3E98D9B4@Botton.com> <7avmc6$gvf$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> <7b16dn$p0e$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> <1999Feb24.131906.1@eisner> <7b3oah$teq$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> <7b4fod$kd4$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> <7b4lhn$465@drn.newsguy.com> <7b53kl$6f1$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> <7b59m9$a4v@drn.newsguy.com> <7bagdq$kn9$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> <7baj6j$e57@drn.newsguy.com> X-Accept-Language: en Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Organization: CyberGate, Inc. Mime-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 1999-02-28T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: > > Any way. The whole active X, VB, COM, Windows world is dying. You might not > see it now, but wait 2-3 years. The new revolution in software is > happening in the world of open source and the GNU/Linux/Apache and all > of this will become the new platform where exciting things will be > developed on (and hopefully Ada will be part of this). And when windows > die, VB will die with it since that is only place it is used on. > I don't think it is likely that you will see the demise of Microsoft, Windows, and for sure COM with in the next 2-3 years (perhaps 10 to 20). What you might see is COM/DCOM running on Linux and other Linux variants like Unix (actually it already exists on these platforms, see http://www.softwareag.com/corporat/solutions/entirex/entirex.htm I will also be posting soon an example of DCOM with Ada95 that will work with the Linux DCOM setup also at http://www.botton.com/ada) along with many other Microsoft technologies. If Microsoft ever sees itself slipping or "losing" to Linux, it can pull an "Internet Explorer" and release half or more of the OS for free or even as OpenSource and quickly crush the competition. I am no fan of Microsoft, but I can tell you that certain aspects of their technology are here to stay. One of which is COM (ActiveX, OLE, or whatever the next name they pull out of hat will be). COM may be a bit complex at start, but once you understand the principles and the basic skeleton code to produce objects, you find that you have an exceptional model that produces objects reusable from any supporting language. What you get for free from writing to COM specs is worth a note also, a simple automation compliant COM object is instantly a distributed object with no change of code. It is easily accessed from Java, VB., C++, Ada95 and just about every scripting language on the planet (including Python and Perl) on the local machine or off. (While creating COM objects in Ada95 is still hindered by some compiler issues, using COM objects works perfect! see http://www.botton.com/ada/os ) There are many other noted features that come along with COM and I refer you to Essential COM and Inside OLE second edition as two good sources of information. I predict you will see in the very near future Win workstations everywhere running a GUI app written in VB, Delphi or whatever controlling tons of legacy and new Ada applications through DCOM on just about any server platform you can imagine (including Linux). Imagine the simplicity of sending a simple document to the CEO of a large corporation in the middle of crisis at his manufacturing plants with DCOM objects embedded in the document illustrating current production levels and statistics updating in front of his eyes from servers and equipment (not just Windows based!) all over the globe. Not just a dream, I have built systems like this more then once and it works. The number of COM/ActiveX objects already available for reuse is beyond belief. The amount of legacy code being repackaged in to COM objects is mind boggling and that is nothing compared to new code that is taking advantage of COM. David Botton