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OMG Java Mapping History and Analysis

The goal of this page is to trace the evolution of the OMG's IDL/Java mappings, and to summarize the features and issues addressed in each specification and corresponding vendor releases. Much of this information was gathered from the OMG's Technology Adoption page and the OMG's Technical Committee Work in Progress page. Additional information is in the OMG Doclist.

An attempt is made to correlate vendor implementation versions with OMG specification versions, where known, and mostly relies heavily on the interpretation of this author. This is most definitely a work in progress, and contributions would be appreciated.

This page is current as of April 11, 1999. None of the information on this page should be considered as being issued by the OMG; these are interpretations.

OMG CORBA/Java-related Technology Adoptions

 

 
Event Date OMG Documents & Notes Highlights Vendor Compliance
IDL Java Mapping 1.0  June 24, 1997 Scheduled as part of CORBA 2.2 see http://www.omg.org/corba/c2indx.htm 
Relevant documents:  
orbos/97-03-01 (Updated Java/IDL Revised Submission): .pdf .ps 		 Initial version; used by Programming with Java IDL text and examples. Sun Java IDL 1.1 EA; 
Sun Solaris Java IDL 1.1; 
Sun JDK 1.2; Sun Java 2
Java to IDL Specification  July 28, 1998 Relevant documents:  
orbos/98-04-04 (Revised chapter 7 of the Java to IDL Submission): .pdf .ps 
orbos/98-03-16 (Second errata update to the Java to IDL Mapping Submission): .pdf .ps 		 Initial version of reverse mapping; goal is to enable RMI over IIOP as well as Java to IDL mapping. Sun(/IBM) RMI-IIOP Beta 0.2
Objects-by-Value Specification July 28, 1998 Relevant documents: 
orbos/98-01-18 (Joint Revised Objects-by-Value Submission with Errata): .pdf		 Specifies changes to IDL/Java mapping for OBV in Chapter 6. Sun(/IBM) RMI-IIOP Beta 0.2
IDL/Java Revision 1.1  July 28, 1998 Relevant documents:  
orbos/98-01-16 (Java 1.1 RTF Output--Mapping of OMG IDL to Java): .pdf .ps 		 Bug fixes; CORBA 2.1 and 2.2 compliance; Security 1.2 RTF compliance; singleton ORB clarification Iona OrbixWeb 3.1c
IDL to Java Mapping (POA)  July 28, 1998 Relevant documents:  
orbos/98-03-10 (ORB Portability Java Language mapping): .pdf .ps 		 Applies ORB Portability Spec (orbos/97-05-15) to IDL Java Mapping 1.0 spec; deprecates BOA mapping; adds IDL fixed type; adds standard Tie mechanism  
OBV 2.3 Revision November 10, 1998 Relevant documents:
ptc/98-07-06 (OBV 2.3 RTF Report)		    
Java to IDL 2.3 Revision November 10, 1998 Relevant documents:
ptc/98-08-01 (Java to IDL RTF final report)		   Sun(/IBM) RMI-IIOP Beta 0.2
Java 2.3 Revision November 10, 1998 Relevant documents:
ptc/98-07-07 (Java 2.3 RTF Report)		 Integrates 1.2 RTF and Java POA spec into text of CORBA Chapter 23. Reflects CORBA 2.3 revisions for Core, Interop and OBV. Also more bug fixes. Add Helpers for any and TypeCode. Added IDLEntity marker interface for generated types. Note that at some point during or prior to this RTF, JDK 1.1 became the minimum basis for an IDL/Java implementation.  
Java 1.2 Revision November 10, 1998 Relevant documents:
orbos/98-05-11 (Java RTF 1.2 Report)		 Bug fixes to orbos/98-03-10 (IDL to Java Mapping (POA))  
Java to IDL 2.3a Revision January 25, 1999 Relevant documents:
ptc/98-10-01 (Java to IDL 2.3a RTF report)
ptc/98-10-02 (Updated Chapter 26: Java Language to IDL Mapping)		 JDK 1.2 compliance (serialPersistentField); improved exception mapping; multi-dimensional arrays/sequences in valuetypes; no server wait code required; non-public Java types mapped to IDL; add mappings for Class, Object, Serializable and Externalizable; versions in OBV RMI: hashcodes; stub downloading Sun(/IBM) RMI-IIOP Beta 0.2

OMG Java mapping-related Work in Progress

IDL to Java 2.3a RTF
Highlights: Further coordination with CORBA 2.3 changes, especially Java-IDL (RMI) issues. Inclusion of standard org.omg.* Java source code with specification.

Java to IDL 2.4 RTF

Java 2.4 RTF

This RTF consolidates work on both the IDL to Java mapping and the Java to IDL mapping into one task force. Presumably this work will appear as part of the CORBA Core 2.4 in Chapter 25.

Highlights:

1)A structure has been decided upon to allow the evolution of the Java mappings that allows Sun to embed a relatively frozen version of the org.omg.* classes in the JDK, in particular Java 2, while allowing vendors to provide implementations of OMG specs later than the freeze. To accomplish this, all Interface Repository types have been removed from the core runtime interfaces, and new CORBA version-specific subclasses have been introduced (the first is org.omg.CORBA_2_3.ORB that has extended operations, the mapping for enums has been changed so that enum sub-classes may be defined, and certain OBV-necessary methods were moved to subclassess that will not be part of JDK 1.2.

2) Other changes made by this RTF include clean-up work resulting from implementation experience with the mappings resulting from the OBV and POA specification integration. These revisions were led primarily by Inprise and IBM. Also, some clarifications were made about when certain CORBA SystemExceptions would be thrown.

CORBA Component Model RFP

Highlights: This submission essentially is the OMG side of a harmonization of CORBA with Enterprise Java Beans. It is intimately tied to the Persistent State Service 2.0 RFP (still in process).