Part 1. The Use of Mobile Object Technology in Large Scale Architectures: Introduction : The Big Picture

Different technologies map differently onto and relate differently to large scale architectural requirements in net-centric systems.  Two important features of technologies that might be useful are (1) how obvious their usefulness to such systems is and (2) how easy it is to illustrate their place in such architectures. [fn. 1]

Mobile object technology (MOT) in general and Kolona MOT (KMOT) in particular can be shown to be clearly useful in meeting large scale architectural requirements but difficult to illustrate.  There is no plain illustration for the applicability of MOT to such architectures like there is, e.g., for an enterprise service bus: no sweeping graphic, no simple statement.  MOT, like JDBC and IoC/DI, needs to be addressed in detail in order to properly illustrate its usefulness.  The bugaboo of MOT is a lack of systemic understanding in the relevant technological communities of what MOT is and the use of MOT is. 

Further, the “evident” nature of MOT potential contributions in general or in relation to architectural requirements in particular cannot be realized without first elucidating and understanding the essential features of MOT.  There is certain knowledge of MOT that is required before these things are “evident”.  The fact that mobile objects move tells us virtually nothing.  Of course they do!  So what?  Without explicit and clear explanations of what MOT is, we are left to guess at applicability.  Consequently, even the “evident” nature of the positive impact of MOT relating in meeting large scale architectural and operational requirements is not clear until the essential high level values in MOT in general and KMOT in particular are well understood.  What is evident is evident only af-ter MOT and KMOT are well understood.  Without this base for understanding, MOT discussions are no more than idle conjectures.

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[Fn. 1]

“Not evident” in the graphic means not directly useful but that does not mean there is no use in the big picture.  Legacy CORBA or EAI functionality, for example, might plug into an ESB.  “Evident” means something that large scale architectures and systems should incorporate where indicated.  Enterprise Service Bus (ESB): decouples and distributes integration logic.  Extensible Markup Language (XML): provides for interoper-able exchanges between networked hosts.  Java Message Service (JMS): a specification for loosely coupled, event-based, synchronous and asynchronous messaging.  Inversion of Control (IoC): a lightweight dependency injection that assists in the efficiency and cost of development.  Java Database Connectivity (JDBC): a database abstraction that allows multiple implementations to serve an application.  MOT (MOT): an event-based, technology for moving functionality in order to convert remote messaging to local messag-ing.  Enterprise Application Integration (EAI): decouples network integration from applications and pro-vides centralized control of the integration.  Common Request Broker Architecture (CORBA): a standard that enables software components writing in multiple computer languages and running on multiple comput-ers to work together.  C++: a general purpose programming language built as an enhancement of the C lan-guage, adding classes, virtual functions, operator overloading, multiple inheritance, templates and exception handling.  Flash: a multimedia and application player.