[Pipet Devel] PAOS vs. CORBA

[J.W. Bizzaro]

In response to Alan's question and maybe to answer some yet unasked, here is the
reasoning behind the choice of PAOS over CORBA:

   (1)  CORBA bindings are not available for Python under GNU GPL or LGPL.
        The CORBA system is in fact so different from Python and C (it is
        closer to C++ and Java) that bindings have been difficult to make
        (a la the ORBit project).

   (2)  CORBA is a general-purpose object server that we cannot change.
        PAOS, on the other hand can be changed (we hope :-) to suit our
        needs, making a special purpose biocomputing system.  Having a
        "Loci system" will allow for a much cleaner integration of tools.

   (3)  Being special purpose and 100% Python, PAOS will be significantly
        easier than CORBA for new contributors to pick up.  Konrad once
        noted that if the barrier to contributing to Loci is learning
        CORBA, it may be enough to discourage most contributions.

   (4)  Loci will make use of XML for document exchange and inter-locus
        communication to such an extent that we will want an object
        broker that is also an XML parser/writer (if we can build
        this into PAOS, which goes along with #2).

And this is not to mention recent news that CORBA is losing its language
independence and being slated to use Java as some kind of intermediate.


Cheers.
Jeff
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J.W. Bizzaro                  mailto:bizzaro at bc.edu
Boston College Chemistry      http://www.uml.edu/Dept/Chem/Bizzaro/
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