Common Object Request Broker Architecture
<standard, programming> (CORBA) An
Object Management Group specification which provides a standard messaging interface between distributed objects.
The original CORBA specification (1.1) has been revised through version 2 (CORBA 2) with the latest specification being version 3 (CORBA 3).
In its most basic form CORBA consists of the
Interface Definition Language (IDL) and the Dynamic Invocation Interface (DII).
The IDL definition is complied into a Stub (client) and Skeleton (server) component that communicate through an
Object Request Broker (ORB).
When an ORB determines that a request is to a remote object, it may execute the request by communicating with the remote ORB.
The Corba IDL can be mapped to a number of languages including
C,
C++,
Java,
COBOL,
Smalltalk,
Ada,
Lisp,
Python, and IDLscript.
CORBA ORBs are widely available for a number of platforms.
The OMG standard for inter-ORB communication is
IIOP, this ensures that all CORBA 2 compliant ORBS are able to interoperate.
See also
COSS,
Component Object Model,
RMI.
OMG CORBA site (http://www.corba.org/).
