Date: Mon, 4 Sep 1995 11:59:49 +0200
From: Veronique.Benzaken@lri.fr (Veronique Benzaken)
Message-Id: <199509040959.LAA28547@sun4.lri.fr>
To: bd3@lri.lri.fr
Subject: CHOOSE'95
Content-Length: 10901

communique       :
 
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 ============================================================================
                   CHOOSE Forum '95: Ready for Distribution                  
 ============================================================================
                          Monday, September 11, 1995                         
                Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne              
 
 
 
 The Swiss Group for Object-Oriented Systems and Environment, CHOOSE, is this
 year again organizing a very interesting CHOOSE Forum focusing on the
 combination of the two technologies of distribution and objects. 
 
 
 
 Conference Program
 ==================
 
 
  9:30 - 10:00   Registration
 
 10:00 - 11:15   Keynote Talk:
                 Bits vs Atoms: Objects as Electronic Property
                 Brad Cox, GMU Pgm on Social and Organizational Learning
 
 11:15 - 12:00   Experience Talk:
                 DOE Beta Evaluation and the ISI project
                 Mathias Loepfe and Stefan Arn, Ad Novum
 
 12:00 - 13:15   lunch
 
 13:15 - 14:45   Tutorial:
                 Building Distributed Applications with CORBA and C++
                 Steve Vinoski, HP
 
 14:45 - 15:15   coffee break
 
 15:15 - 16:15   Tutorial:
                 Experiences in Developing Distributed Applications with CORBA
                 Sean Baker, Iona
 
 16:15 - 16:45   Panel:
                 Ready for distribution?
 
 16:45 - 17:00   General Assembly of CHOOSE
 
 17:00 - 18:00   aperitif
 
 19:00           dinner (optional)
 
 
 
 Keynote Talk: Bits vs Atoms: Objects as Electronic Property
 ===========================================================
 
 Brad Cox, GMU Pgm on Social and Organizational Learning
 
 Objects are electronic property; a new form of goods composed of bits instead of
 the atoms from which goods have been composed since antiquity. But since bits
 are immune to the physical conservation laws that have determined what it means
 to buy, to sell, or to own goods in the past, this undercuts the incentives of
 those who would provide them.
 
 This simple but fundamental observation prevents us from evolving to the
 advanced form of engineering that has been routine in other fields since the
 industrial revolution. Until this problem is addressed, software will remain a
 primitive craft instead of an advanced manufacturing discipline. We'll have no
 other option but to fabricate higher-level solutions from first principles
 instead of assembling them from catalogs of well-tested prefabricated parts.
 
 This problem has solutions. This presentation describes the one advanced in Dr.
 Cox's new book, "Taming the Electronic Frontier" (Addison Wesley, 1995)
 
 
 Dr. Cox is a faculty member of the George Mason Program on Social and
 Organizational Learning. He is the author of Object-oriented Programming, An
 Evolutionary Approach, a book that is generally credited with launching today's
 industry-wide enthusiasm for object-oriented technologies. He co-founded the
 Stepstone Corporation and originated the Objective-C(tm) programming language
 and Software-IC(tm) libraries to facilitate a software industrial revolution
 where software would be produced, not by fabricating everything from first
 principles as today, but by assembling interchangeable (reusable) software
 components that are in turn supplied by lower-level echelons of producers.
 
 Dr. Cox recently founded the Coalition for Electronic Markets whose objective is
 to build and deploy a nationwide revenue collection infrastructure for commerce
 in electronic goods. Since electronic goods are composed of intangible bits
 instead of the atoms of commerce since antiquity, they can be copied by any
 customer without loss and transported at literally the speed of light..
 
 Prior to co-founding Stepstone, he worked for Schlumberger-Doll Research where
 he applied artificial intelligence, object-oriented, Unix, and workstation
 technologies to oil field wireline services. Before that he worked in the
 Programming Technology Center at ITT, where he applied Unix and object-oriented
 technologies in support of the development of a large, highly distributed
 telephone switching system, System 1240.
 
 He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago for theoretical and
 experimental work in neurophysiology in an area that has since become known as
 neural networks. His post-graduate experimental studies were at the National
 Institutes of Health and at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratories.
 
 
 
 Experience Talk: DOE Beta Evaluation and the ISI project
 ========================================================
 
 Mathias Loepfe and Stefan Arn, Ad Novum
 
 Ad Novum Informatik AG has been engaged in  Sun Microsystems' evaluation program
 of DOE (Distributed Objects Everywhere) since November 1993. The project DOE is
 Sun's approach to the implementation of a CORBA-compliant ORB.
 
 Experience shows that software reuse can be put into practice by a strong
 separation of interface and implementation. This decoupling allows for language
 independence on both the client and the server side and results in independent
 and reusable components. It also provides a sensible migration path for
 embedding legacy applications into modern client server environments.
 
 However, distribution is still problematic. Apart from problems in the area of
 name services, life cycle model, persistent objects, and multi-ORB applications
 designer still have troubles with the distinction between fine grained language
 objects and coarse grained CORBA objects.
 
 Moreover, a big disadvantage is the lack of language support for distributed
 systems. Ordinary languages provide no constructs for distributed systems, like
 "protocol", "service", or "transaction" which would ease the development of such
 systems.
 
 Mathias Loepfe has been with Ad Novum since 1989. He is designer and project
 manager for distributed systems. Stefan Arn is founder and CEO of Ad Novum. Both
 have been involved in object-oriented software development in various industrial
 or banking related application domains.
 
 
 
 Tutorial: Building Distributed Applications with CORBA and C++
 ==============================================================
 
 Steve Vinoski, HP
 
 The Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) Specification, published
 in 1991 by the Object Management Group (OMG), provides a standard base on which
 distributed object computing systems and applications can be built.  In late
 1994 the OMG adopted a standard C++ language mapping for the OMG Interface
 Definition Language (IDL) and the standard CORBA interfaces.
 
 This tutorial will show how CORBA applications can be written using the standard
 OMG IDL C++ Language Mapping.  Examples will show how basic IDL constructs such
 as interfaces, operations, object references, and sequences can be used to
 describe and implement CORBA objects, and how C++ applications request services
 from such objects. After the basic IDL features have been covered, code samples
 will show the Dynamic Invocation Interface (DII) can be used, and how standard
 OMG Object Services (CORBAservices) such as Naming can be used to support
 distributed applications.
 
 
 Steve Vinoski is a software architect in Hewlett Packard's Chelmsford System
 Software Laboratory (CSSL), where he has been a part of the HP distributed
 object computing development team for over four years. Together with Dr. Doug
 Schmidt he writes the "Object Interconnections" column in C++ Report.  During
 1994 he served as the editor of the OMG IDL C++ Language Mapping Specification,
 and he currently chairs the OMG C++ Mapping Revision Task Force.
 
 
 
 Tutorial: Experiences in Developing Distributed Applications with CORBA
 =======================================================================
 
 Sean Baker, Iona
 
 This Tutorial will present a practical view of CORBA as a set of technologies
 for integrating heterogeneous environments. Examples of large applications
 implemented with these technologies will be presented. These case studies will
 be based on what has been achieved with the ORBIX CORBA compliant distributed
 platform.
 
 Dr. Sean Baker is Director of IONA Technologies. He has been one of the
 designers and implementors of ORBIX, the platform commercialized by IONA. Dr.
 Sean Baker is involved as a consultant in several developments of large
 distributed applications. He has been Professor during 12 years at the Trinity
 College in Dublin. His main interests are distributed systems, data bases and
 object oriented programming.
 
 
 
 Location
 ========
 
 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne (EPFL)
 Please look for signposts to find the actual lecture hall ("amphi" CO2, in front
 of cafeteria LA COUPOLE).
 
 Directions for train travelers: when you arrive at the railway station (Lausanne
 CFF), walk out in front of the station (Place de la Gare), and cross to take the
 "Metro" to Lausanne-Centre (take a ticket at 2.-, it covers the whole trip to
 EPFL).  At Lausanne-Centre (also called Flon), take the "Metro Ouest" (also
 called TSOL, runs every 10 minutes) to EPFL (about 13 minutes away).  At the
 metro station EPFL, walk down (same direction as your metro is going) and turn
 left to get under the street on the way to "La Coupole" (straight ahead).
 
 
 
 Date
 ====
 
 Monday, September 11, 1995
 
 
 
 Prices
 ======
 
             SI member*  others
 normal        100.-       150.-
 reduced        50.-       120.-
 
 dinner         55.-        55.-
 
 The reduced rate is available for students and unemployed, CHOOSE members get an
 additional sFr 10.- off the appropriate category. If you register after August
 12 prices are increased by sFr. 20.-. Prices include lunch and coffees.
 
 Please pay only after you have been billed.
 
 * Membership rates are 80.- for SI and additional 20.- for CHOOSE (students pay
 25.- and 10.-). To apply for membership contact the SI secretary.
 
 
 
 Information
 ===========
 
 Dr. Rachid Guerraoui
 DI-LSE
 EPFL IN-Ecublens
 1015 Lausanne  Suisse
 Tel: +(41) +(21) 693 52 72
 Fax: +(41) +(21) 693 39 09
 e-mail : guerraoui@lse.epfl.ch
 
 
 Registration
 ============
 
 SI secretary
 CHOOSE Forum Ready for Distribution
 Schwandenholzstr. 286
 8046 Zuerich
 Tel 01 / 371 73 42
 Fax 01 371 23 00
 E-mail si@ifi.unizh.ch
 
 
 
 
 Send the following registration to the SI secretary.
 
 ___________________________________________________________________________
 
 
 Name: 
 Company:
 Address:
 
 Please check all that apply:
 ( ) CHOOSE member
 ( ) SI member
 ( ) student with proof
 ( ) unemployed 
 ( ) I come to the dinner (only valid if registered before August, 12)
 
 Date:                                   Signature: