The Object Management Group’s promised Common Object Model-to-Object Request Broker interoperability specification request will spark the mother of all industry struggles for victory, insiders believe. It will make the process to select an Object Request Broker-to-Object Request Broker mechanism look like a storm in a tea-cup, they say. The heart of the matter is how much of its Common Object Model Microsoft Corp would have to put into the public domain to have its mechanism prevail. IBM Corp, still hurting from Microsoft control of its product destiny, is expected to fight Microsoft all the way on this one. The two are already slugging it out over the wording of the Common Object Model-to-Object Request Broker Request For Proposals drafts that go before Object Group’s New Jersey meeting next month. Request For Proposals submitters are required to list documents against which submissions will be evaluated. IBM is apparently arguing that Microsoft’s documents lack sufficient Common Object Model detail, moreover what is missing is certain information that could prevent it going back and changing anything in its Common Object Model plans retrospectively. Most anticipate Microsoft handing down some kind of plan to Object Group members indicating how much of their Common Object Request Broker Architecture specification they’d have to change to accommodate Common Object Model interoperability.
