[1] AUTHORS, COPYRIGHT, PERMISSIONS, INTENDED AUDIENCE, NAVIGATION
(Part of the CORBA FAQ, Copyright © 1996)

[1.1] THE AUTHORS (ALPHABETICALLY)

• Rob Appelbaum
• Marshall Cline
• Mike Girou

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[1.2] ABOUT ROB APPELBAUM

Robert Appelbaum graduated Cum Laude from the University of Rochester in 1990. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Cognitive Science. While there, he specialized in knowledge representation. Topics such as computer based reasoning, cognitive psychology, natural language processing and vision processing augmented a traditional math and computer oriented program. He has attended post-graduate computer classes at NYU and Harvard.

After graduating, he worked for Informix Software as a systems engineer. He spent the next four years building, benchmarking, and deploying relational database applications. While there he worked primarily within the telecommunications and financial services industries. After leaving Informix Software, Mr. Appelbaum took a job as a senior systems engineer with Persistence Software. This allowed Mr. Appelbaum to leverage his relational database experiences along with his knowledge of Object Oriented languages and methodologies.

Mr. Appelbaum is currently employed by Expersoft Corporation. He was their first field engineer and is currently chief systems architect. His day to day tasks distribute him between development, marketing and customer assignments. While working for Expersoft, he has been involved with many leading edge distributed ORB based applications built with C++. He has helped design and review applications within both the telecommunications and Financial services arenas. Many of these projects have successfully combined the use of Object Oriented Database technologies with Expersoft ORB products. He has published an article entitled “ORBs and OODBMSs, the perfect solution” in Object Magazine, September 1995. He has also authored a whitepaper entitled “Distributed Applications within the Financial Services Industry.”

He can be reached at the following address:

Robert Appelbaum
201-726-8405
rappelbaum@expersoft.com
Home page

Expersoft Corporation
65 Hilltop Trail
Sparta, NJ 07871

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[1.3] ABOUT MARSHALL CLINE

CONTACT INFO

Marshall Cline
315-353-6100
cline@parashift.com

Paradigm Shift, Inc.
One Park St.
Norwood, NY 13668

SUMMARY

Solves business problems by exploiting emerging technologies such as Object-Oriented technology, Distributed Objects, Intranets, and the World Wide Web. Experience with large projects (hundred million dollar) and large organizations (hundreds of people). Multi-year repeat business from several Fortune 50 organizations. Global audience of hundreds of thousands in various writings including a book and three Internet/Web Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) repositories (Intranets, Corba Distributed Objects, and C++). Listed in several Who’s Who publications and member of two National Honorary Societies. Principal Voting Member of two national and international standardization efforts. Results oriented.

PARADIGM SHIFT, INC., FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT, 1991-PRESENT

• Experience working with high level people in marketing and executive management, as well as line management and technologists. For example, Bull, IBM, Allstate.
• Experience on large projects at the highest technical levels. For example, with 8 and 9 figure budgets.
• Experience with business-oriented frameworks. For example, VMI, A.G. Edwards, AFL, DTC, CSX.
• Experience with distributed object systems, included distributed wireless applications. For example, Brooklyn Union Gas working with Corba and various RF and OO components.
• Experience with large organizations. For example, provided the core OO consulting, design, and mentoring for the 150+ developers who built the software for IBM’s 64 bit AS/400. Results: 2x-price/performance gain to customers, 10x development efficiency through reuse.
• Developed a technology to enable adaptable business applications with Mike Girou, called Business-Oriented Lifecycle Technique (BOLT), along with the underlying Enduring Business Theme (EBT) technology. These improve marketing and management control over software specification and development.
• Invited speaker in U.S., Canada, Mexico, Europe, and China. Have trained and mentored thousands of software professionals in numerous companies across the USA, in Canada and in Mexico. Consistently high reviews.
• Fourteen years of experience using the Internet; eleven years of experience using OO; have been with Java since it was called OAK.
• Developed the CORBA FAQ with M. Girou and R. Appelbaum. Published on the Internet since 1996. A corresponding book is in progress.
• Developed the C++ FAQ. Published on the Internet since 1991.
• Author of the book C++ FAQs with Greg Lomow. Published by Addison-Wesley, the book’s initial printing (7,500) sold out within 3 months.

CLARKSON UNIVERSITY, VISITING ASST. PROFESSOR, 1989-1991

• Developed the first Internet based Frequently Asked Questions list for the Usenet newsgroup comp.lang.c++. Very wide distribution with over 200,000 estimated readership. Still being accessed thousands of times per month on the World Wide Web.
• Pioneered the adoption of OO technology in the University’s Graduate Curriculum.
• Developed the first Internet-based Compiler Quality Report for the Borland C++ product line. Influential in the Borland organization and popular with a global audience.
• Created A++ (Annotated C++), a technique for embedding semantic annotations into OO software. This was received well by the OO community; continues to get requests for reprints of the papers on a regular basis.

CLARKSON UNIVERSITY, INSTRUCTOR AND TECHNOLOGY CONSULTANT, 1986-1989

• Led the organization on the adoption of technology throughout the organization.
• Products included high performance reusable components. For example, a data repository component with 10x better performance over the earlier approach.

COMPAS, SOFTWARE SYSTEMS MANAGER, 1985-1986

• Rapidly promoted to management after being initially hired as a technologist in the test area.
• Oversaw development of software that automated the test/QA area. The solutions have had an exceptionally long usefulness (still being used over a decade later).
• Exploited both Networking and OO.

ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS

• Ph.D., Electrical and Computer Engineering, Clarkson University, 1989, GPA of 3.9.
• Master of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Clarkson University, 1984.
• Bachelor of Science in Physics, St. Lawrence University, 1981, Cum Laude, multiple Dean’s List awards, Faculty Scholar.

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[1.4] ABOUT MIKE GIROU

[Recently supplied bio info finally (7/1997). Click here to go to the next FAQ in the “chain” of recent changes]

CONTACT INFO

Mike Girou
972 690-0685
mgirou@ix.netcom.com

MT Systems Company
2538 Big Horn Lane
Richardson, TX 75080

SUMMARY

Mike Girou has been combining common sense and high-technology to solve practical business problems for the last twenty-five years, while maintaining an active research career in computer science, finance, and pure mathematics. He has been actively involved with OO since the mid 1980’s, and has had many successful collaborations with Marshall Cline over the last four years. His biography can be found in Who’s Who In Science And Technology, American Men And Women Of Science, and Who’s Who In The World; he has published two dozen refereed journal articles and refereed several hundred. He serves on the X3J16 and WG21 C++ standards committees.

Girou’s client list includes IBM, Groupe Bull, Federal Express, ATT, Microsoft, CSX, Allstate, Cenex, Brooklyn Union Gas, and GTE. He received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Missouri at Columbia, and is a registered Commodities Trading Advisor.

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[1.5] COPYRIGHT NOTICE

The CORBA FAQ document is Copyright © 1996, Rob Appelbaum, Marshall Cline, and Mike Girou. All rights reserved. Copying is permitted only under designated situations.

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[1.6] NO WARRANTY

THIS WORK IS PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” BASIS. THE AUTHORS PROVIDE NO WARRANTY WHATSOEVER, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, REGARDING THE WORK, INCLUDING WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO ITS MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

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[1.7] COPYING PERMISSIONS

[Recently clarified (2/1997). Click here to go to the next FAQ in the “chain” of recent changes]

The Authors hereby authorize you to copy portions or the entirety of the CORBA FAQ for your own personal use. If you want to redistribute any portions of the CORBA FAQ to others (even for free), you must get permission from the authors first (and that permission is normally granted; note however that it’s often easier for you to simply tell your recipients about the one-click download option). In any event, all copies you make must retain verbatim and display conspicuously all the following: all copyright notices, the Authors section, the Copyright Notice section, the No Warranty section, and the Copying Permissions section.

If you want more and/or different privileges than are outlined here, please contact us. We’re very reasonable...

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[1.8] TRADEMARKS

• No trademarks used so far (at least any that we know of!)

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[1.9] WHAT THE INTENDED AUDIENCE LOOKS LIKE

[Recently rewrote the last paragraph more modestly (7/1997). Click here to go to the next FAQ in the “chain” of recent changes]

Our goal is to make the CORBA FAQ be a practical guide for how to use CORBA to build real-life distributed applications, rather than merely to show what it is. In other words, the document will be tailored to developers who intend to use CORBA to build applications, not to developers who are going to build a new CORBA-compliant ORB.

This is in a similar spirit to C++ FAQ.

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[1.10] “MORALITY” IN ADDITION TO JUST “LEGALITY”

[Recently rewrote the last paragraph more modestly (7/1997). Click here to go to the next FAQ in the “chain” of recent changes]

We have included/will include “things that can cause your project to fail,” rather than merely showing syntax and programming rules. We are presenting what is moral in addition to what is legal. I.e., what you “should” and “shouldn’t” do in addition to what you “can” and “can’t” do.

This approach was well-received on the C++ FAQ, which is based loosely on a similar model.

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[1.11] TUTORIAL

The CORBA FAQ includes a tutorial that gives a top-down perspective of how to use CORBA to build distributed applications. This will (hopefully!) make it possible for people who are new to CORBA to read and understand the FAQ.

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[1.12] FOUR DIFFERENT WAYS TO NAVIGATE THE CORBA FAQ

1. Use the table of contents or the exhaustive TOC if you want to read section-by-section or if you want to scan for a topic.
2. Use the extensive Subject Index if you’re looking for a specific topic in the CORBA FAQ.
3. Use the hyper-linked chain of FAQs that are or if you want to see what’s changed since the last time you read the CORBA FAQ.
4. Use the alphabetical list of all FAQs if you remember the name of a FAQ you’ve read in the past, but you can’t remember which section it’s in.

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[1.13] HOW CAN I GET A COPY OF ALL THE HTML FILES OF THE CORBA FAQ SO I CAN READ THEM OFF-LINE?

Here’s how you can get a bundled and compressed copy of the HTML files of the CORBA FAQ e-mailed to you:

1. Select a format (.zip is common on Windows and the Mac, .tar.Z and .tar.gz are common on UNIX), then click the associated button below (but only click it once). You won’t see a confirmation page in your Web browser (although some browsers show you an e-mail window; if so, just click “SEND”):
2. Wait a few minutes, then check your e-mail. If you don’t receive an e-mail message containing the bundled FAQ, wait a while longer and check again. If you still haven’t received it after waiting an entire day, something is wrong and you can send us e-mail or try again.
3. Once you receive the FAQ in your e-mail, unpack the FAQ using the instructions contained in the associated e-mail message.

Note: e-mail was selected as the preferred delivery mechanism because it’s the best choice for people overseas (so they don’t have to wait while the packets cross the ocean). So please please don’t send us e-mail asking for an FTP address since there isn’t one. Thanks!

Restriction: the FAQ uses “long filenames.” If your machine can’t handle long filenames (e.g., if it’s DOS and/or Windows 3.x), you cannot unpack the FAQ. UNIX, Windows NT, Windows 95, and Mac all handle long filenames correctly.

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[1.14] HOW CAN I GET A COPY OF ALL THE “PLAINTEXT” FILES OF THE CORBA FAQ SO I CAN READ THEM OFF-LINE?

The “plaintext” version of the CORBA FAQ is posted monthly on comp.object.corba. These simple text files are mechanically produced by stripping the HTML tags from the HTML files on the Web site. Therefore the plaintext files aren’t as pretty to look at and don’t have the hyper-linked cross references, but they have basically the same information as the HTML files.

Here’s how you can get a bundled and compressed copy of the plaintext files of the CORBA FAQ e-mailed to you:

1. Select a format (.zip is common on Windows and the Mac, .tar.Z and .tar.gz are common on UNIX), then click the associated button below (but only click it once). You won’t see a confirmation page in your Web browser (although some browsers show you an e-mail window; if so, just click “SEND”):
2. Wait a few minutes, then check your e-mail. If you don’t receive an e-mail message containing the bundled FAQ, wait a while longer and check again. If you still haven’t received it after waiting an entire day, something is wrong and you can send us e-mail or try again.
3. Once you receive the FAQ in your e-mail, unpack the FAQ using the instructions contained in the associated e-mail message.

Note: e-mail was selected as the preferred delivery mechanism because it’s the best choice for people overseas (so they don’t have to wait while the packets cross the ocean). So please please don’t send us e-mail asking for an FTP address since there isn’t one. Thanks!

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[1.15] WHAT URLS ARE THERE FOR GETTING THE CORBA FAQ?

• English
• Japanese

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