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forwarded if the information required is not found in the current file. The number of hopsused to consult these configuration files is bounded.The default implementation can of course be overruled by providing a derived class oflocatorClass and registering an instance of this new locator with Orbix. An alternativeimplementation might for example use a directory service in which the mapping from servicenames to groups of hosts had been registered.If the location service identifies that several hosts can provide the target service, Orbix selectsany one of these hosts at random. Randomising the selection helps to spread server loadingwhen multiple clients are using the same service.Orbix Architecture - The IDL Compiler and Interface RepositoryThe IDL compiler is internally structured so as to maintain a clear separation between thefront-end parsing and analysis, and the back-end interpretation of the parsed IDL source files.Three different back-ends have so far been written: simple regeneration of the original IDLsource from the parse tree; stub code generation for C++; and generation of information forthe Interface Repository.The clean separation between front-end and back-end has possible commercial as well astechnical benefits. We thought it possible that other parties may wish to have access to anIDL compiler in order to do their own interpretation of IDL source code. In the standardOrbix product the header files defining the internal compiler interfaces are not documentedand shipped. However, in principle they could be given to interested customers, togetherwith the source code for the simple IDL regeneration back-end.At about the time that we had the first version of the IDL compiler completed, SunSoftplaced a version of their own IDL compiler effectively into the public domain. At that stage,we were committed to our own development, and saw no particular reason to change.Naturally however we are keen to ensure that our compiler remains aligned to thespecification of IDL and with SunSoft's compiler.The IDL compiler is shipped in Orbix as a full executable for the stub generation. Howeverduring our design of Orbix, we were also concerned about the complexity of the CORBAInterface Repository specification and were keen to simplify its implementation as much aspossible. Clearly, parsing of IDL source files should directly or indirectly have the side effectof providing the information required by the IR.We considered how the IDL compiler could be integrated into the IR using the object faulthandler mechanism described earlier. That is, the IR should be built as a normal Orbix objectserver. It should use the object fault handler to detect an attempted invocations on (IR)objects as yet unknown to it. To resolve these object faults, it could use the IDL compiler atruntime to parse the appropriate IDL source files and generate the objects used internally bythe IR.info@iona.ie Page 14
As a result the IR does not use a persistent object store for its information: rather IDL sourcecode files are in effect the persistent store for the IR. An immediate benefit was the use ofstandard utilities - in UNIX, such as emacs and RCS - to update and provide version controlon the IR information.A consequence of the design however was that the IDL compiler (front-end, and at least oneback-end) would have to be runtime callable code. The major issue here was to ensure thatwhen the compiler was called at runtime, no dynamically allocated memory was leaked as aresult of parsing. The compiler (and its cpp-like pre-processor) has been engineeredaccordingly, making extensive use of the Purify tool to ensure leak-free operation - as indeedhas the remainder of the Orbix system.One concern regarding runtime parsing of IDL source files might be the delay in handling anobject fault while the IDL compiler was called. The compiler is dynamically linked into theIR application and is not called as a separate process, so at least there is little overhead on itsactivation. However, the IR can also be instructed to pre-parse specified IDL source files,and so avoid object faults on IDL interfaces which are known in advance to be commonlyused.A second concern regarding runtime parsing has been the virtual memory requirements of theIR. For long-running systems, in which many IDL interfaces need to be known to the IR,there is a possibility that memory usage by the IR may grow. We have yet to experience thatso far by the IR, but may need to introduce a mechanism into the IR code so that memoryusage can be monitored and so that less recently used interfaces registered (i.e. parsed) withthe IR are forgotten: if they are needed again, they will have to be reparsed.Writing an Orbix ApplicationGiven an IDL object description, it is possible to generate all the necessary code to marshalland unmarshall all the parameters which must be passed with an object invocation. The IDLstubs are automatically generated by the IDL compiler.Consider the following IDL:// IDLinterface foo {string op1(in long x, inout float y, out string z);};The IDL compiler will generate the appropriate code to marshall the parameters on the clientside, transmit the request to the server, dispatch it to the correct object and send the results ofthe invocation back to the client.info@iona.ie Page 15
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Page 5 and 6: interface a little more user friend
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Page 10 and 11: • Breakpoints, when debugging and
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Page 16 and 17: To the client programmer this is ve
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