| The road to where we are |
| Smalltalk |
Though it brought object-oriented programming to corporate IT attention, it lacked network orientation |
| VBX controls |
This 16-bit component technology for early versions of Microsoft Visual Basic popularized mass-market reusable components but lacked "true" objects' benefits of inheritance and specialization |
| COM/DCOM |
This 32-bit architecture, which underlies Microsoft Office and Windows NT, is ill-suited to long-distance connections between heterogeneous platforms |
| CORBA |
Conceived as a vendor-neutral architecture, CORBA was slowed by early competitive efforts to differentiate products, but gaining ground in partnership with Enterprise JavaBeans component model |
| COM+ |
Microsoft's promised enhancement of DCOM adds software layers to emulate CORBA's strengths but is a victim of Windows NT 5.0 (now Windows 2000) delays; it is expected to favor Microsoft technologies |
| |
| What you get, what you give |
| ActiveX/DCOM |
Windows native code: This technology is fast but inherently insecure, because network-resident modules gain users' privileges when downloaded to client machines |
| JavaBeans |
Java byte code: JavaBeans is gaining speed with enhanced run-time compilation tools, but is generally less able to exploit specific features of any single platform. It permits better control of execution privileges because of intrinsic Java security features, which are now more accessible thanks to policy-based model in new Java 2 specification |
