EXTRAS

Question 1

Define Corba technology

Answer 1

Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) technology is the open standard for heterogeneous computing. CORBA complements the Java™ platform by providing a distributed object framework, services to support that framework, and interoperability with other languages

Question 2

How do objects in a a Corba environment interact?

Answer 2

Data communication from client to server is accomplished through a well-defined object-oriented interface. The Object Request Broker (ORB) determines the location of the target object, sends a request to that object, and returns any response back to the caller. Through this object-oriented technology, developers can take advantage of features such as inheritance, encapsulation, polymorphism, and runtime dynamic binding. These features allow applications to be changed, modified and re-used with minimal changes to the parent interface. The illustration below identifies how a client sends a request to a server through the ORB:
IIOP (Internet Inter-ORB Protocol) is a protocol that makes it possible for distributed programs written in different programming languages to communicate

Question 3

Gaming and animation are an important aspect in the modern world. In a bid to be all
rounded, Java provides several technologies to facilitate the development of games
among young developers. Describe any two Java tools for creating games and
animations. Highlight at least 2 characteristics of each of these gaming tools

Answer 3

Greenfoot- Greenfoot teaches object orientation with Java. Create ‘actors’ which live in ‘worlds’ to build games, simulations, and other graphical programs. Greenfoot is an integrated development environment using Java or Stride designed primarily for educational purposes at the high school and undergraduate level. It allows easy development of two-dimensional graphical applications, such as simulations and interactive games.

Alice- Alice is an innovative block-based programming environment that makes it easy to create animations, build interactive narratives, or program simple games in 3D. Unlike many of the puzzle-based coding applications Alice motivates learning through creative exploration. Alice is designed to teach logical and computational thinking skills, fundamental principles of programming and to be a first exposure to object-oriented programming.

Question 4

With still the technology in (a) above in mind(Corba) , identify and describe the language used
to facilitate the communication between the interfaces of the remote systems. Write a
simple interface using the language identified.

Answer 4

CORBA objects communicate via a message interface, described by the Interface Definition Language (IDL).

Question 5

Name and describe two other technologies that are similar to the technology identified
in CORBA

Answer 5

Socket Programming
Remote Procedure Call (RPC):
DCE
RMI
Advantage – it supports the passing of objects by value, a feature not (currently) supported by CORBA.
Disadvantage – it is a java-only solution, that is RMI servers and clients must be written in JAVA