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POCORBA on Mac OS X (Cocoa)
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copied!<p>I am currently looking into different ways to support distributed model objects (that is, a computational model that runs on several different computers) in a project that initially focuses on Mac OS X (using Cocoa). As far as I know there is the possibility to use the class cluster around <code>NSProxy</code>. But there also seem to be implementations of CORBA around with Objective-C support.</p> <p>At a later time there may be the need to also support/include Windows machines. In that case I would need to use something like Gnustep on the Windows side (which may be an option, if it works well) or come up with a combination of both technologies. Or write something manually (which is, of course, the least desirable option).</p> <p>My questions are:</p> <ol> <li><p>If you have experience with both technologies (Cocoa native infrastructure vs. CORBA) can you point out some key features/issues of either approach? (<strong>EDIT:</strong> As I had already pointed out in <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2846337/best-way-to-do-interprocess-communication-on-mac-os-x">this thread</a> remote methods are unavailable for the iPhone and the iPad so far. On the other hand, there are CORBA implementations that work on either platform, e.g. "<a href="http://adorb.sourceforge.net/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">AdORB - CORBA ORB for Mac OS X and iPhone OS</a>".)</p></li> <li><p>Is it possible to use Gnustep with Cocoa in the way explained above? [<strong>EDIT:</strong> According to the <a href="http://www.gnustep.org/resources/documentation/User/GNUstep/faq_1.html#SEC7" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Gnustep FAQ entry 1.1.5</a> this is not possible, so using Cocoa's native infrastructure locks me into this technology.]</p></li> <li><p>Is it possible (and reasonably feasible, that is, simpler than writing a network layer manually) to communicate among all Mac OS clients using Cocoa's technology and with Windows clients through CORBA? [<strong>EDIT:</strong> From what I have learned now this is possible, but certainly not feasible. Messages would have to get forwarded both ways, i.e., one needs a "proxy" for forwarding messages from one system to the other and vice versa. This is essentially equivalent to writing a network layer manually with no practical benefit from either the <code>NSProxy</code> class cluster nor CORBA.]</p></li> </ol> <p><strong>UPDATE:</strong> CORBA seems to really be a better match when flexibility and extensibility is a concern. The downside is that it seems to be more complex to learn and also use initially, see <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1226050/is-corba-legacy">this thread</a> (link provided by Kristopher Johnson – thanks!) for different perspectives on the practical aspects. Webservices are a viable option as long as the communication pattern is simple enough, see <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3152700/what-type-of-webservice-works-best-with-ios">this thread</a> for options that work well on iOS. I have summarized my findings <a href="http://www.field-theory.org/articles/parallel/index.html#ios" rel="nofollow noreferrer">in this article</a>.</p>

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