Gerald Brose <gerald.brose@x...> wrote in message news:<2i864aFji3sfU1@u...>...
> (I would like to point out
> Steve Vinoski's "Middleware dark matter" article to all those believing
> that CORBA is the only true middleware around.)

Thanks for the reference, Gerald. In fact, I've written a number of
papers and articles related to this very IDL/WSDL topic. You can find
the dark matter paper and the others here:

<http://dsonline.computer.org/0210/d/w5midd.htm>
<http://www.iona.com/hyplan/vinoski/pdfs/IEEE-Integration_With_Web_Services.pdf>
<http://www.iona.com/hyplan/vinoski/pdfs/IEEE-Web_Services_Interaction_Models_Part_1.pdf>
<http://www.iona.com/hyplan/vinoski/pdfs/IEEE-Web_Services_Interaction_Models_Part_2.pdf>
<http://www.cuj.com/documents/s=7990/cujcexp1910vinoski/>

I should also mention some relevant OMG work that IONA is leading at
the moment. At the previous meeting, back at the end of April, we
succeeded in getting the OMG to issue an RFP for a WSDL-to-C++
mapping:

<http://www.omg.org/cgi-bin/apps/do_doc?mars/04-04-22.pdf>

At the next meeting later this month, I'll be presenting a proposal
that the OMG issue an RFP for a CORBA binding for WSDL. Most people
associate only SOAP with WSDL, but WSDL is in fact specifically
designed to be extended with non-SOAP bindings. Some of this is
discussed in the second paper referenced above.

At IONA we have a product called Artix that supports WSDL-based access
for CORBA systems, MQ Series, Tuxedo, TIBCO, SOAP, J2EE. This is not a
SOAP-to-whatever bridge, but instead supports native bindings for
these technologies (though it can also bridge SOAP to these other
things). The Artix WSDL CORBA binding is the one we'll submit to the
OMG if the accept our above-mentioned proposal and issue the RFP. You
can read more about Artix and download a free Artix developer kit
here:

<http://www.iona.com/products/artix/welcome.htm>

Artix gives you the best of both worlds, in that it preserves your
investment in CORBA, while also allowing you to marry it rather
seamlessly and with high performance to other middleware and to web
services.

--steve