Meanwhile last week’s proposal for a Common Object Model-to-Object Request Broker interoperability Request For Proposal put to the Object Management Group in Dublin by Microsoft Corp characteristically puts the cart before the horse. It is no secret that Microsoft privately has little use for the Object Group or its goals, It is believed to be co-operating at this juncture only to further its own ends essentially by making the anticipated Corba 2 specification subordinate to Object Linking & Embedding and the Microsoft object model. If the Microsoft proposal were to be accepted, a possibility said to be extremely unlikely given the proposal’s present form, Unix developers would wind up developing to a Redmond specification, patently an anathema in Unix circles. In the coming months, alternatives to the Microsoft proposal are expected to come forward, some from seemingly unlikely places. They may be more embracing than the proposal at hand. Indeed, Common Object Model-to-Object Request Broker solutions are seen as only part of the problem of object interoperability. One mechanism that is already attracting the attention of leading vendors is under development at Canadian interface software house, Visual Edge Software Ltd. The company is cautious about talking in detail except under non-disclosure agreements although it is itching to tell – claiming patents have yet to be filed. Visual’s solution, which is only around in evaluation form, is said to run something like this. If Common Object Model and Common Object Request Broker Architecture are thought of as just a couple of slices of the object cake, its technology is expected to enable a user to go in through any one slice and out via any another. Moreover, Visual’s object cake is not restricted to the Object Group or Microsoft’s models and is expected to embrace many other object paradigms, including OpenDoc, Lotus Development Corp Notes groupware and document interchange. At least two firms have apparently already agreed to take the stuff, and it is not restricted to Unix.
