There is going something strange with Gold Hill, Inc.
Sending e-mails to goldhill-inc.com I can't receive
even auto-responses. Also fax and voice calls can't
be connected. (Maybe in Chestnut Hill was a small
A-War? :) ) It is very important, so if anybody
knows what kind of problem is there, and how I can
fix it, I would be very much appreciate for such
message.
Mike V. Muravyoff
AI Group, Tomsk State University
P.S. Vince, Bob, if you are reading this letter,
please reply to me.
This is to announce the availability of an alpha release of ILU 2.0,
ILU 2.0alpha10. See ftp://ftp.parc.xerox.com/pub/ilu/ilu.html to
download the sources for UNIX or Windows or pre-built Windows
binaries.
The Inter-Language Unification system (ILU) is a multi-language object
interface system. The object interfaces provided by ILU hide
implementation distinctions between different languages, between
different address spaces, and between operating system types. ILU can
be used to build multi-lingual object-oriented libraries ("class
libraries") with well-specified language-independent interfaces. It
can also be used to implement distributed systems. It can also be
used to define and document interfaces between the modules of
non-distributed programs. ILU interfaces can be specified in either
the OMG's IDL language, or in ILU's Interface Specification Language,
which allows extensions to the CORBA spec. Programming languages
supported in 2.0alpha10 are ANSI C, Common Lisp, Java, and Python;
rough C++ support is also present. Operating systems supported in
2.0alpha10 are all Windows platforms with Win32 and WinSock, and all
UNIX platforms with BSD sockets and minimal POSIX compliance.
2.0alpha10 supports interoperability with ONC RPC services, OMG CORBA
services, World Wide Web HTTP services, and XNS Courier services.
``Plug-in'' extensibility is provided for RPC message formats, message
transport schemes, URL schemes, accounting and authorization identity
types, threading and event loop processing, and various other things.
ILU is provided free for unrestricted use.
Known bugs are listed in the README file. Despite being an alpha
release, 2.0alpha10 is very stable along a number of dimensions.
Principal areas still under development, and hence unstable, are: the
specific APIs for security, the C++ mapping, the Java mapping, the
mapping of ILU object references to various RPC protocols, the
specific algorithm for automatic generation of type UID fingerprints,
and the specific contents of the ILU profile in the OMG CORBA IOR.
Patches will be appearing in the file
ftp://ftp.parc.xerox.com/pub/ilu/2.0a10/patches.html.
Changes from 2.0alpha9 to 2.0alpha10
------------------------------------
* *Default garbage collection behavior of Python true objects
changed.* In previous ILU releases, the ILU kernel held an extra
reference to each Python true object, so that they were never
garbage collected. This extra reference has been removed in
2.0alpha10, so that the application must be careful to maintain
references to objects which it wishes to preserve.
* *Aggressive garbage collection of C objects.* C objects
(`ILU_C_Object *') are now reference counted. An application must
be careful to use `CORBA_Object_duplicate' and
`CORBA_Object_release' correctly to avoid memory smashes.
* *Full type information cached.* If both `--enable-pickle-support'
and `--enable-corba-iiop' have been selected, full type
information on all compiled-in or dynamically-loaded ISL types is
now cached in memory. This makes it theoretically possible for
someone to write a CORBA Interface Repository service for ILU (or
something more useful). Note changes in `ilu_DefineMethod',
`ilu_DefineException', and the new function `ilu_DefineMethodArg'.
* *HTTP persistence supported.* The `HTTP' protocol may now be
selected with the string `"http_1_0p"', which causes it to send
`Connection: "Keep-Alive"' headers, and not close the connection
between calls (assuming of course that the other end of the
connection also supports this behavior - fairly common.) The
programs in examples/httest have been updated accordingly. In
addition, it is now possible to use `HTTP' over a boundaried
transport.
* *OMG IDL exceptions with values handled.* The `idl2isl' compiler
now, for an OMG IDL exception `E', generates an ISL exception
called `E', and an ISL type called
`ilu--prefix-idlExceptionType-E'. The stubbers handle this type
variously; the C stubber renames it to `E', as required by the
CORBA spec; the Python stubber renames it to `E__omgidl_exctype';
the Lisp stubber folds it into the definition of the `condition'
`E', and doesn't support the type directly at all.
* *Java support improved.* The Java support has been improved, and
brought closer to the emerging CORBA specification for it.
Pickles are now supported, and work with IIOP; enumerations are now
mapped according to the CORBA standard; system exceptions are now
Java runtime exceptions; interfaces can be specified in OMG IDL;
works with select-based (BSD) systems as well as poll-based (SVR4)
systems; holder classes can be mapped the OMG way; many bug fixes.
* *Common Lisp support improved.* The Common Lisp work by Joachim
Achtzehnter has been incorporated, and various other fixes have
been added, including PICKLE support. Common Lisp support is
still missing type registration, but in other respects should be
fully working.
* *ilu_Server leaks fixed.* In previous versions, ILU kernel
servers which had become empty were not garbage collected. This
has been fixed. The fix also changes the `iluMainLoop' class in
the old C++ runtime.
* *Default protocol and transport selected dynamically.* The default
protocol and transport are now selected dynamically, so that ILU
installations without `Sun RPC' can be created.
* *idl2isl now provided on Win32.* The `idl2isl' is now part of the
Windows build.
* *Python 1.4 now provided on Win32.* Python 1.4 is now the version
used on Windows systems.
* *WINIO no longer part of release.* WINIO, a subsystem no longer
needed by ILU on Windows, but included in previous releases, has
been dropped from the release distribution.
--
Bill Janssen <·······@parc.xerox.com> (415) 812-4763 FAX: (415) 812-4777
Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, 3333 Coyote Hill Rd, Palo Alto, CA 94304
URL: ftp://ftp.parc.xerox.com/pub/ilu/misc/janssen.html