> I am quite unhappy to see these developments (e.g.,
> H/Direct) being based on some proprietary standards, as it
> means that they are rather useless to me.
>
Lets clarify some points:
- H/Direct is a OSF DCE IDL compiler which can not only
generate COM specific bindings but also for example
bindings for general C libraries or dynamic libraries
or some CORBA binding. Thanks to sigbjorn's expertise,
it is a very modular and adaptable compiler that is freely
available and it should be pretty easy to add a CORBA
binding.
- HaskellServer is an interface specification that
allows other software components to use Haskell
programs by accessing the interpreter/compiler.
It has an IDL specification and allthough the only
implementation now is for COM, nothing prevents you
from writing an implementation under UNIX with ORBIX !
(btw. I changed the design a lot the past few weeks,
and I will update the documentation the coming weeks;
thereby deleting the COM agains CORBA section, this
is just my personal view of things and should probably
not belong in that document.)
- HaskellScript *is* a COM specific piece of software that
lets Haskell programs be used as a generic scripting language
for programs like MS Word or Internet explorer; much
like JavaScript and VBScript. It is COM specific because it
uses ActiveX interfaces which specify a general infrastructure
in which components can interact. (ie. drawing, persistance,
events). However, this work *could* be done just as easy
for UNIX & CORBA *if* there were standard interfaces for
implementing a scripting binding.
[Note that it is ActiveX that makes COM a very attractive
platform. Because of ActiveX, many ready to use components
are available, like ADO for accessing databases, IE for
accessing the internet and DirectAnimation for doing fancy
animations. Without such an infrastructure, no market for
reusable components can exist.
(http://www.internetworld.com/print/1997/12/08/software/19971208-critic.html
)
]
Allthough we have made a binding now for COM, it would indeed be great
if we could also have a CORBA binding; it is of vital importance that
Haskell can talk with the outside world and the more languages it knows, the
better :-)
Since there is a serious lack of programmers, it would be very nice if
someone would like to adapt H/Direct and the COM run-time modules to
create a CORBA binding on a UNIX system; any volunteers ?
All the best,
Daan.
