IBM Corp late last month began beta testing its Distributed System Object Model, which is intended provide the underpinnings for the company’s future object-based software, US PC Week reports. The Model builds on OS/2 2.0 and the System Object Model of the Workplace Shell , an object-oriented schema that provides a standard way to write class libraries and a general-purpose mechanism for communicating between objects. The new Model extends the capability to a distributed environment, so that objects can be shared among networked systems. Although the thing is initially being tested under OS/2 2.0 and AIX, IBM plans to incorporate it in future operating systems and to do versions of the Distributed System Object Model for other systems – and the Taligent Inc joint venture with Apple Computer Inc also has licence to the technology. IBM is also working with Apple on Bento, Apple’s format for identifying and interchanging objects, and is looking at using the two developments together.
