Erlang/OTP R10B has been released

[Niclas Eklund]

Hello!

New release, new features. The most interesting CORBA (Orber) features are
changed footprints (light IFR, generated code and compile time reduced),
security and even easier to use.

 (1) Simplified usage. The easiest way to describe this is a simple
     example:

 * Create an IDL file (see 6 OMG IDL to Erlang Mapping in Orber's User's
   Guide)
module my {
    interface server {
	void echo(in string S);
    };
};

 * Compile it and generate the call-back module. The latter is complete
   with mandatory and user defined functions, headers etc.

shell> erlc +"{light_ifr,true}" my.idl
shell> erlc +"{be, erl_template}" my.idl

 * Add the logic to the call-back module:

echo(State, S) ->
    io:format("~s~n", [S]), %% Add this row
    {reply, ok, State}.
   
 * Compile the erl-files, start Orber and the server and invoke the echo
   operation:

shell> erl -orber flags 128
erl> make:all().
erl> orber:jump_start().
erl> oe_my:oe_register().
erl> Obj = my_server:oe_create().
erl> my_server:echo(Obj, "CORBA is very easy to use!").

Done!

It's possible to change the look and feel of the generated call-back
module (erlc +"{flags,2}" my.idl).

Compare this with the amount of work required to write your, for example, 
own gen_server-wrapper or defining the API in other, so called "human
readable", languages compared with IDL.


 (2) Footprints. Use the IC compile option {light_ifr,true} and Orber's
     configuration parameter -orber flags 128 (see 5.2 Configuration in
     Orber's User's Guide)

 (3) Security (e.g. DOS attacks). Set the configuration parameters  
     iiop_max_fragments, iiop_max_in_requests, iiop_max_in_connections and
     iiop_packet_size (see 5.2 Configuration in Orber's User's Guide).

/Nick