Clearly, DCE specifications as
a whole are closer to completion than CORBA specifications. This is not
surprising, given the ambitious task OMG has undertaken;
Figure 3 is impressive in the breadth
and depth of services it depicts. It is another matter entirely whether
OMG will be completely successful at defining all of the components in Figure 3. As for the maturity
of DCE
implementations and CORBA-conformant ORBs, there are mature examples of each.
Let us draw the following distinctions:
The
completeness of OSF and OMG specifications is one issue. DCE is certainly closer to being fully
specified than CORBA (including all of the CORBA Services and CORBA Facilities).
The maturity (that is, stability)
of existing specifications is a second issue. Though all of the existing
specifications are subject to revision, both OSF and OMG are attempting to do so only when necessary
and
to maintain backward compatibility whenever possible. In this respect, both the DCE specification and
the
CORBA specification (the ORB only, not including CORBA Services or CORBA Facilities) are reasonably
mature (although the CORBA specification may
require
greater revision in view of the large number of services yet to be specified).
The
completeness of conformant products as far as implementing all of the existing specifications is a
third issue. In this respect, there are reasonably complete implementations of both DCE and CORBA
(the ORB only).
The
maturity (that is, stability) of conformant products is the fourth and final issue. In this respect,
there
are mature implementations of both DCE and CORBA-conformant ORBs.
1.Introduction
