[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]

Bill Janssen: Inter-Language Unification

Here is an interesting piece of software that can allow CL-HTTP on a
variety of platforms to interoperate smoothly with other languages and services.

ILU presently works with Franz and Harlequin Lisps.  There is an old MAC port
which needs to be updated to modern MCL and the powerPC architecture with
OpenTransport.

Some of the nice applications that ILU can enable include call outs from
computed responses to
persistent datastores (.e.g, corba, exodus, ODI, 4th dimension...) or
objects gatewaying arbitrary
services,  (e.g., Z39.50).

In any case, ILU can provide a mechanism for accesses libaries and services
written on
other languages like C, and C++, Java, Python just as it makes Common Lisp
functionality
available in those languages.  On the mac, one might consider ILU as a way
to create
object-oriented interfaces to quicktime VR or 3D.


>Mime-Version: 1.0
>Date: Wed, 30 Aug 1995 00:10:11 -0400
>To: infostructure-seminar@clinton.ai.mit.edu
>From: JCMA@ai.mit.edu (John C. Mallery)
>Subject: Bill Janssen: Inter-Language Unification 2-3pm **Today**
>
>
>                          Inter-Language Unification (ILU)
>                                    Bill Janssen (janssen@parc.xerox.com)
>                           Palo Alto Research Center
>                                     Xerox
>
>                        Date: 2-3pm Wednesday August 30, 1995
>                        Location: 8th floor Playroom, AI Lab
>
>The Inter-Language Unification system (ILU) is a multi-language object
>interface system. The object interfaces provided by ILU hide implementation
>distinctions between different languages, between different address spaces,
>and between operating system types. ILU can be used to build multi-lingual
>object-oriented libraries ("class libraries") with well-specified
>language-independent interfaces. It can also be used to implement
>distributed systems. It can also be used to define and document interfaces
>between the modules of non-distributed programs. ILU interfaces are
>specified in ILU's Interface Specification Language.
>
>The 1.8 release of ILU contains support for the programming languages Common
>Lisp, C++, ANSI C, Modula-3, and Python. It has been installed on many
>flavors of UNIX, including SPARC machines running SunOS 4.1.3 and Solaris 2,
>SGI MIPS machines running IRIX 5.2, Intel 486 machines running Linux 1.1.78,
>DEC Alpha machines with OSF/1, IBM RS/6000 machines running AIX, and HP
>machines running HP/UX. A port of ILU to the Microsoft Windows 3.1 and
>Windows NT environments has been finished, and will form part of the 1.9
>release. ILU supports both threaded and non-threaded operation. One of the
>implementation goals of ILU is to maximize compatibility with existing open
>standards. As a result, ILU provides support for use of the OMG CORBA IDL
>interface description language, and can be thought of as a CORBA ORB system
>(though with omissions from and extensions to the CORBA spec). As another
>result, ILU includes a self-contained implementation of ONC RPC, and it is
>possible to describe and use existing RPC services as ILU objects. ILU is
>available free from `ftp://ftp.parc.xerox.com/pub/ilu/ilu.html'.
>
>
>Host: John Mallery