From edbark@cme.nist.gov Fri Aug 29 18:35:28 1997 Received: from radio.cme.nist.gov (radio.cme.nist.gov [129.6.32.51]) by dkuug.dk (8.6.12/8.6.12) with SMTP id SAA20447 for ; Fri, 29 Aug 1997 18:35:18 +0200 Received: by radio.cme.nist.gov (4.1/SMI-3.2-Libes.9) id AA11053; Fri, 29 Aug 97 12:35:06 EDT Date: Fri, 29 Aug 97 12:35:06 EDT From: edbark@cme.nist.gov (Ed Barkmeyer) Message-Id: <9708291635.AA11053@radio.cme.nist.gov> To: sc22wg5@dkuug.dk Subject: FORTRAN bindings for IDL? I am belatedly passing on a request to the organization most likely to know of developers of language-bindings to Fortran. This request comes from the Object Management Group -- a consortium of users and vendors of software supporting "distributed object systems", generically called CORBA. The interfaces between systems are stated in a language called the Interface Definition Language (IDL) which has been adopted by ISO JTC1/SC21 as the interface specification language for Open Distributed Processing. Vendors of the communication software provide "compilers" that translate the IDL interfaces into a set of language-specific FUNCTION/SUBROUTINE "stubs" for the client and "skeletons" for the server. The stub routines convert the client calls into network messages. The "server" is a set of subroutines bound to a main program provided by the vendor, called the Object Request Broker (ORB). The ORB receives the messages and executes the corresponding calls on the server subroutines. The "skeletons" are just that, usually little more than SUBROUTINE () END and the developer of the server itself fills in the body. Since the IDL somewhat resembles Java or C++ routine signatures, the problem lies in developing a good mapping to the standard Fortran language. OMG rules allow any company to propose a document as the standard, get feedback, and work with any other proposers. But there is a requirement that whoever (all) proposes the "adopted technology" must provide a letter-of-intent to provide an implementation of that standard as a software product within 12 months of adoption (in practice, 24 months is closer to what actually happens). I also attach a letter from an ORB vendor -- Xerox -- who offers to provide the communcations components and marshalling software as part of a joint effort with anyone who knows how to do the mapping of IDL to Fortran and would be able to provide the compiler. I'm just the messenger on this. For further information on how to work with OMG and the IDL, etc., please contact Jon Siegel (below). The whole of OMG work, including the formal IDL specification, is online via: http://www.omg.org/ -Ed Barkmeyer NIST delegate to OMG (and sometime formerly U.S. rep to WG2 and WG11) ----- Begin Included Message ----- >From siegel@omg.org Tue Jul 15 11:01 EDT 1997 >Date: Tue, 15 Jul 1997 09:40:40 -0400 >To: ptc@omg.org, dtc@omg.org, vendors@omg.org >From: Jon Siegel Subject: FORTRAN bindings for IDL? Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Length: 1336 Hi -- The electric power industry, just getting started with OMG on the domain side, is a big user of FORTRAN and is looking for CORBA products they can use with the language. I'm aware of the problems here (from my scientific programming days), BUT still comes the question: does anyone out there have an IDL-FORTRAN compiler, or would anyone build one for this market? Please respond to myself and Mark Lowenstein (lowenstein@omg.org). Thanks! Jon Siegel ================================================================== Jon Siegel Phone: 508-820-4300 X124 Director, Domain Technology Fax: 508-820-4303 Object Management Group 492 Old Connecticut Path email: siegel@omg.org Framingham, Massachusetts 01701 USA http://www.omg.org ================================================================== >From janssen@parc.xerox.com Tue Jul 15 20:52 EDT 1997 >Date: Tue, 15 Jul 1997 16:23:28 PDT >From: Bill Janssen >To: ptc@omg.org, dtc@omg.org, vendors@omg.org, Jon Siegel Subject: Re: FORTRAN bindings for IDL? Content-Type: text Content-Length: 164 We would be interested in helping an interested party add FORTRAN-90 support to our free CORBA system, ILU. Please contact me if you'd care to discuss this. Bill ----- End Included Message -----