EMERGING STANDARDS FOR COMPONENT SOFTWARE

Two new technologies-compound documents, and component software-are likely to accelerate the spread of object-oriented concepts across system-level services, development tools, and application-level behaviors. Compound documents and component software, which are closely tied to the popular client/server architecture for distributed computing, define object-based models that foster interactions between independent programs. The new technologies promise to simplify the design and implementation of complex software applications and, equally important, simplify human/computer interactive work models for application end users. Software vendors have developed competing and incompatible standards to support and drive the compound document and component software technologies. These standards specify distinct object models, data storage models, and appplication interaction protocols. The incompatibilities have resulted in confusion in the market as vendors, users, system integrators, and developers struggle to sort out the standards' relative merits, weaknesses; and chances for commercial success. This article examines general technical concepts underlying compound documents and component software; the OpenDoc OLE 2, COM, and CORBA standards that have been proposed for the two technologies; and the work that is underway to extend the standards and to achieve interoperability across them.