Distrib. Object Computing & Ada - 1 Dec

Distrib. Object Computing & Ada - 1 Dec

[Victor Giddings]

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    D I S T R I B U T E D  O B J E C T  C O M P U T I N G  and A d a
                              sponsored by
                            U.S. Army STRICOM
              DISA Information Technology Standards Center
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DATE:     Thursday, 1 December, 1994
LOCATION: The MITRE Corporation Hayes Building 7525 Colshire Dr.
          McLean, Va.  22102 (see attached directions)

REGISTRATION:  Send names and contact information for each
registrant to the following by 18 November, 1994. (email
preferred)

     Huet Landry, 703-487-3565          DISA/TBEC 
     (landryh@cc.ims.disa.mil) or       10701 Parkridge Blvd.
     Nanci Hannon, 703-487-3564         Reston, VA. 22091-4398
     (hannon@cc.ims.disa.mil)      FAX: 703-487-3257

AGENDA
                
9:00 - 9:30         Introduction
                    Dennis Van Langen, Huet Landry (DISA)
9:30 - 10:00   OMG History and Strategy
                    Jon Siegel (OMG)
10:00 - 10:30  Strategy and Introduction to OMG-IDL -> Ada9x 
Mapping
                    Vic Giddings, Diane Mularz (MITRE)
10:30 - 11:30  Overview of Mapping and Status of Translator
                    Bill Beckwith (Objective Interface Systems)
11:30 - 12:00  Q & A   All
12:00 -  1:00  L U N C H  (MITRE cafeteria available)
1:00   -  4:00 Strategy Discussion with attendees
                    Huet Landry, Jon Siegel, Tom Mowbray (MITRE)
\f
BACKGROUND

The Object Management Group is a consortium of over 460 members
dedicated to the advancement of distributed object computing
technology based on the notion of an object request broker as
defined in their Object Management Architecture Guide.  This
consortium has specified and standardized a Common Object Request
Broker Architecture (CORBA) that includes an Interface Definition
Language known as OMG-IDL.  Interfaces between distributed
components are specified with OMG-IDL.  Implementation of these
interfaces requires a mapping and corresponding translation
software from OMG-IDL to a target implementation language.  

A mapping for C was specified as part of the CORBA standard and a
C++ mapping is in the final stages of approval.  Investigation of
an Ada83 mapping had been pursued by several organizations but no
known efforts existed for Ada9x until this one.  In April of this
year, MITRE, OIS, and DISA entered into a collaborative effort to
specify a mapping from the Object Management Group Interface
Definition Language (OMG-IDL) and Ada9x.  MITRE's efforts were in
support of U.S. Army STRICOM; DISA's Center for Standards had
targeted this area for standardization; and OIS had a market
interest in building an Ada-based version of Fresco as the basis
for their User Interface Builder software. Ada9x was chosen as
the target language rather than Ada83 for two reasons. One is
that Ada9x represents a true object-oriented language.  Two is
that the team was confident that an Ada83 derivation from the
Ada9x mapping would be more straightforward than the reverse.

A draft mapping has been produced and is available for public
review as identified below.  This mapping has been used by MITRE
as the basis for an integration of an Ada component with an ORB
and OIS is using this mapping to implement the Fresco
specification as well as to develop a translator from OMG-IDL to
Ada9x.

PURPOSE OF MEETING

The purpose of this meeting is to determine community interest in
this effort and to identify independent software vendors and
compiler writers interested in maturing this effort into a
commercial product.  The OMG standardization process requires
that several corporate members sponsor such an effort and that
there is strong community interest (demonstrated through
participation in the OMG process) in exploiting the corresponding
technology. If you have an interest in this effort, please plan
on attending this meeting or at least acknowledging corporate or
project interest.

ACCESS TO DRAFT MAPPING DOCUMENT

The draft mapping will be available after 5 November for review
by accessing the DISA ITSC web server at
http://jcdbs.2000.disa.mil.