Re: What makes Java so special?

** Reply to note from DAsmussen@aol.com Fri, 21 Nov 1997 22:13:37 -0500 (EST)

> Am I just missing something here?  I thought that the whole reason behind
> "object orientation" was that the application wouldn't be tied to a specific
> platform.  For example, I would think that your display form would call a
> database server program in order to access the data on box "X".  In turn, I
> would think that you would have a "generic" version of the database server
> program that could access anything, regardless of "box".  I would also think
> that the "winners" in this fight would have "platform optimized" database
> servers (of the same name as their "generic" counterparts) that could be
> installed in place of the "generic" ones when a specific server was to be
> targeted.  Forget the fallacy of ODBC, just run whatever works best on a
> given platform.  Is this wrong?

Yes, this is wrong. 

Object orientation and platform independance are two different things. Java
just happens to have both which is part of why it is so significant. 

Object orientation has to do with application coding and indicates the use of
some principles that make code development faster, code re-use easier, cuts
down coding, debugging, maintenance time, etc. 

Object based systems, which seems to be what you are refering to, do not
necessarily have platform independance unless they use an industry standard
for accessing objects. SOM and DSOM followed a published standard. CORBA
would be the objects standard choice of the day, competing with Microsoft's
object models (darnit, were they COM and DCOM?). Anyway, talking to an object
would be object based. 

So, your application issues a request to an object broker which translates
that request off to the target system. The use of object brokers, as you
point out, insulate your client machine from it's target. But that doesn't
mean that your client application is platform independant. It could be
compiled C code on a CPM machine. So, while the client code can't move, it
doesn't care what kind of machine or application is issuing a response since
it is using an object model standard for it's requests. 

> Dean Asmussen
 

Chris Rehm
Mr.AS400@ibm.net

How often can you afford to be unexpectedly out of business?
Get an AS/400.
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