Method and apparatus for allowing generic stubs to marshal and unmarshal

Abstract

The invention provides solutions to the problems which are encountered by object oriented systems designers when attempting to implement schemes for object invocation and for argument passing in distributed systems wherein the arguments may be objects, and wherein the system supports a multiplicity of ORB-specific data formats, in ways which do not lock the object oriented base system into methods which may be difficult to change at a later time. Moreover, the invention disclosed describes a 'Marshal Buffer mechanism' which contains methods for marshaling data for a specific ORB; a 'Multi-ORB Marshaling system' which permits a Client Application and related stub to invoke an operation on a target object without any knowledge or concern about which ORB this target object uses or what data format the ORB requires for the arguments of the operation invoked; and a 'Computer system for multi-ORB communication' comprising an ORB independent layer which contains Client Applications and stubs; an ORB dependent-OS independent layer which contains ORB dependent code/Subcontract code mechanisms as well as ORB specific Marshal Buffers for a multiplicity of ORBs; and an Operating System (OS) layer.