Object-Oriented Programming Using SOM and DSOM/Future Directions

SOM, with its set of Frameworks, provides the underlying facilities for building object-oriented applications in a language-neutral manner. However, this is only the beginning. SOM is envisioned as a "software bus" that links operating systems and compilers. Software components can be plugged into this bus and have access to resources located anywhere on the network.

To allow distributed applications to be built across multiple platforms, IBM is working on porting SOM to different systems including Windows, Apple System 7, MVS, OS/400, and Hewlett-Packard Unix. The SOMobject Developer Toolkit for Windows has been recently announced and will be available in the summer of 1994.

There will be new versions of SOM. It will continue to comply with CORBA as it evolves. It will also provide the following object services, which are being defined and standarized by OMG.

• Naming: provides the ability to attach textual names to object references.
• Event Notification: provides notification of asynchronous events.
• Life Cycle: defines services and conventions for creating, deleting, copying, and moving objects.
• Persistence: provides common interfaces to make all, or part of an object state persistent.

In addition, IBM is pursuing relationships with different vendors to integrate SOM into their environment. The following provides a summary of the announcements by different companies to incorporate SOM into various product offerings. This is an area of intense activity. We expect a number of other SOM related announcements in the coming months.