In a move to reconcile the chasm between two key emerging object-oriented standards, Microsoft Corp and Digital Equipment Corp duly announced a new bridging technology that enables Microsoft’s Object Linking and Embedding 2.0 specification to comply with DEC’s implementation of the Object Management Group’s Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CI No 2,308). The technology is called the Common Object Model, and according to DEC, it will enable OLE to retain its own object model, but will also manage the exchange of objects between OLE and CORBA without Windows or Unix applications being modified, DEC says. The technology will include an object adaptor from DEC, which translates an Object Linking & Embedding object into a CORBA object or vice versa, and an object request broker gateway will send and deliver messages between OLE and CORBA. Also included are systems management and object services from Santa Monica, California-based Candle Corp, which will sit between the two different technologies. Other third party software developers such as Cognos and SAP AG will be able to license the technology to develop off the shelf applications and tools with Common Object Model-ready attributes embedded within them. The Common Object Model is expected to ship by late 1994. DEC and Microsoft are also planning to submit the Common Object Model specification to the Object Management Group for ratification.
