Monteverdi
This web site is part of the DePaul University, Distributed Systems graduate class, DS420 group project that is chartered to investigate various DCOM related topics. Since I have a professional interest in this subject, I hope to maintain and evolve this site as the material and my knowledge of the technology continues to grow.
First a better title might have been, The Future of DNA, but this term is too new to distributed systems and it sounds more like a scary Biology topic. Anyway my focus is to present material and insights as to were this technology is going. Obviously this involves studying Microsoft's vision for distributed component technology.
The first topic will be a presentation of some opinions as to why the future of Distributed Component technology is important. A look at the incredible growth in networks, communications, and network applications should excite anyone about the unlimited potential of this technology. Whether Microsoft remains a powerful force or not is debatable, however being aware of their strategy, technology design/composition and vision is important for anyone interested in this industry.
To understand where this technology is going, it helps to know where it came from. What problems did it solve? What is its reason for its being? Understanding its history will help understand the issues and opportunities in the future.
I also will present a personal case study to explain my strong interest in this subject. I think it supports the historical evolving need for software components. It will especially address the general issue of why component technology is important for any company that has software as its intellectual property.
Another topic will be Microsoft's new marketing term: Distributed interNet Applications Architecture or DNA. DNA is basically very much related to Roger Sessions invented acronym, MDCA or Microsoft's Distributed Component Architecture. MDCA was coined by Roger Sessions over two years ago. His background was originally with IBM and he was heavily involved with developing the CORBA specification. He is now a proponent of Microsoft's DCOM goals. Although much has happened since the publishing of his book, COM and DCOM, Microsoft's Vision for Distributed Objects, it is still a valuable resource on this subject. I have attempted to update his material with new supporting and critical works to understand where that vision stands now.
To investigate the future of DCOM, we must also look at COM+. I have presented some details and references about this subject. Much of my material here is from a recent report from Tom Armstrong in the Visual C++ Developers Journal in the February/March 1999 issue.Of great interest to me is what is being done to make COM components easier for developers to build.
There are many resources available for learning about the nuts and bolts of this subject. I will direct you to useful books and sites that have helped me gain a better understanding of this subject.