FAQ 35.11 Is the lifecycle of a CORBA object the same as the life cycle of a C object?

FAQ 35.11 Is the lifecycle of a CORBA object the same as the life cycle of a C++ object?

No, and this requires some mental adjustments.

C++ programmers are accustomed to objects that are known to exist because they were instantiated or known to be gone because they went out of scope or were programmatically destroyed. Reference counting (see FAQ 31.09) confuses the argument a little, but the point remains that the programmer feels that the object life cycle is under control.

But in the CORBA world, objects, particularly server objects, have much more of a life of their own. They may be brought to life once and never die because there is no scope to exit, or they may have a brief existence and commit suicide. It is also important to distinguish between a CORBA object and a servant for a CORBA object. A servant is a C++ object that provides the body of and implementation for one or more CORBA objects, and many C++ programmers stumble over this distinction. A CORBA object may have one or more servants, and a servant may represent (the proper technical term is incarnate) several CORBA objects during its lifetime. These are separate but related entities.

Emotionally, the experience for most developers is similar to the one they went through when they made the shift from procedural programming to OO. For example, programmers coming to OO (say, programming in C++) from procedural programming (say, programming in C) usually feel that they have "lost control." The top-down command-and-control approach was part of their old programming paradigm, and an adjustment is needed. Eventually this uncomfortable feeling disappears. The shift from a traditional monolithic program to a distributed program is similar.