Talk:IBM System Object Model

Confusion between IBM SOM and HP SOM
The existing article is solely about IBM's SOM. HP has a proprietary System Object Model - see HP-UX glossary. A brief excerpt:


 * System Object Model. A 32-bit HP-proprietary object file format for 10.x and 32-bit 11.0 releases of HP-UX.

I'm new to editing, and I'm hesitant to add this info since the entire layout currently is about IBM, and it has the tag in it. --MeekMark 17:36, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

A co-worker of mine located some technical specs for HP's SOM. There is a PDF file http://ftp.parisc-linux.org/docs/arch/pa-runtime-32-SOM.pdf listed at http://www.parisc-linux.org/documentation/index.html#pa11 that details the architecture, and there is a system header file /usr/include/a.out.h which includes other header files which define the layout. The a.out man page mentions that header file and has some additional information. MeekMark 16:45, 22 August 2006 (UTC)


 * I've created a separate article for the HP-UX SOM: System Object Model (file format). -- Dmeranda 05:14, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Removed parts of paragraph
I have removed this unsourced fragment:


 * Many disparage this concept because the vast majority of programs are written in a single language, and the language neutrality always adds overhead — sometimes considerable.

Language neutrality does not always add overhead. Is a C library less efficient because it can also be called from a program written in Pascal? No, because language neutrality is achieved thanks to a standardized binary format (the procedural calling conventions). Similarly, a COM class is not necessarily less efficient than a C++ class (other than the fact that a COM object is always accessed using late binding). One of the main benefits of COM is that it adds a binary standard for objects. dpol (talk) 19:33, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Downloadables
I feel a complete emptyness when I can't see a "download" button. Is is told that there were versions for Windows. Was it SDK or is it only available as part of VisualAge IDE? In the latter case it's not surprising that it's fading away. I can see lots of talk on the net, but I can't touch anything real. Is it still available as part of VisualAge? Aekton (talk) 17:42, 20 May 2012 (UTC)


 * IBM produced versions of SOM/DSOM for OS/2, Microsoft Windows and various Unix flavours (notably IBM's own AIX).

Where do one can find versions of SOM/DSOM for Microsoft Windows? The latest version of VisualAge C++ for Windows seems to be 4.03 (4.0 with fixpack 3). 4.0 can be found in DC++ p2p. Fixpack 3 is available on IBM's FTP. There are several files that contain SOMObj, but no samples and no documentation. VisualAge installs something called IBM runtime. There are lots of cpp-something-40.dll's and some of them contain SOMObj (they export deleteSOMObject for instance). However, none of them is pure. I mean, I'd expect a standalone dll with C naming convention only, but these ones contain constructors and destructors and so on. I can't say for sure whether it's crossplatform stubs (I mean, instead of #ifdef OS2 IBM used if (os == OS2)) or a working parts of code. It's strange that there is no samples and no documentation. It is said that SOM is used to integrate multiple languages (C++, BASIC, SmallTalk) in VisualAge so I'd expect to meet multilanguage samples. Maybe the only intended use of SOM for Windows was OpenDoc? Maybe I need to check out VisualAge SmallTalk? Aekton (talk) 03:04, 22 May 2012 (UTC)

I've tried to use "IBM SOM Windows" in a search bar. The thing I'm looking for is actually named IBM SOMobjects Developer's Toolkit. For instance, here is the documentation: ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/publications/clubod/som30/index.html Aekton (talk) 04:14, 22 May 2012 (UTC)

Looking for SOMobjects Developer's Toolkit 3.0 for Windows
From SOM DTK 3.0 readme :


 * Copy the zip file, som30nt.zip, or the Internet-sized NT zip files, som30nx1.zip, som30nx2.zip and som30nx3.zip, to the directory where you wish to install SOM 3.0.


 * Note: SOM dynamically links with the C runtime. The SOMobjects Developer Toolkit for NT ships somws35i.dll and somwm35i.dll, the single and multi-threaded C runtime libraries, to avoid requiring VisualAge C++.


 * somwm35i.dll only has C RTL functions like memset and memcpy. The main SOM DLL is named som.dll Aekton (talk) 08:36, 30 December 2012 (UTC)

I found som30os2.zip (useless without OS/2). som30tk.zip contains som30os2.zip and som30readme.html I'm quoting now.

I can't find neither som30nt.zip nor som30nx1.zip on the Internet. Aekton (talk) 05:15, 22 May 2012 (UTC)

I was digging web.archive.org and finally found a download page: http://www.software.ibm.com/ad/somobjects/downloads/som30tk.html. Links don't work due to robots.txt Aekton (talk) 16:14, 22 May 2012 (UTC)

IBM CD-ROMs seemed to have "part numbers". For instance, SOMobjects Developer Toolkit Version 2.0: Part number 96F8647 for OS/2; part number 96F8648 for AIX. SOM 3.0 for OS/2 contains these part numbers and several another ones in the headers. 25H7912 seem to be SOM 3.0 physical distribution part number. 83.246.133.61 (talk) 12:25, 26 July 2012 (UTC)


 * Also, 25H7912A Aekton (talk) 10:48, 19 October 2012 (UTC)

Thanks to somFree developer I've got it!!!! Aekton (talk) 04:39, 25 December 2012 (UTC)

NonStop CORBA
The history is as follows: http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Tandem+Delivers+Enterprise+Transaction+Processing+Capabilities+to...-a018607143


 * CUPERTINO, Calif. (BUSINESS WIRE) August 20, 1996 Tandem Computers Incorporated today announced the availability of the first fault-tolerant, scalable CORBA 2.0-compliant object request broker with transaction services. Tandem's product called NonStop(r) Distributed Object Manager (NonStop DOM), is a fusion of the company's high-performance transaction processing software with IBM's SOMobjects(tm) 3.0 object management technology, an emerging standard for enterprise distributed object computing.

tandem.com redirects to Hewlett-Packard website: http://h20223.www2.hp.com/nonstopcomputing/cache/76695-0-0-0-121.html?404m=cache-ccto0


 * NonStop CORBA 2.6.1 is HP's NonStop implementation of OMG's CORBA 2.6 specifications, fully leveraging NonStop fundamentals. NonStop CORBA 2.6.1 is a consolidation of NonStop DOM, NonStop JORB, and NonStop JTS/OTS

If you carefully watched the hands, you can see the way: IBM SOM 3.0 -> Tandem NonStop DOM -> HP NonStop CORBA. According to data sheet, it only runs on NonStop Operating System (Tandem seemed to have a Windows NT version as well) Aekton (talk) 13:54, 26 July 2012 (UTC)


 * No, there were no WinNT version.


 * ftp://ftp.nanet.at/compaq/partners/microsoft/infolib/nsswbkgd.pdf


 * NonStop DOM/MP is scalable to handle very large transaction processing operations. It is available only on the Himalaya server platform. Himalaya is Alpha RISC CPUs + Tru64 UNIX. Aekton (talk) 14:42, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

NOM the Netlabs Object Model
http://svn.netlabs.org/v_nom Aekton (talk) 04:47, 20 August 2012 (UTC)

OpenDoc for Windows
OpenDoc contains SOM (and there is OpenDoc for Windows). Late 1996 release of OpenDoc is 1.1. Just as always, let's look at README: http://web.archive.org/web/19961225072917/http://www.software.ibm.com/clubopendoc/od11read.html#iwin95 This gives us "OD11WIN.EXE". There seems to be "OD12WIN.EXE" as well. Just as always, nothing of this exists on the Internet. DAMN, where has all gone?!! What's the hell I didn't had Internet and knowledge of SOM at those times. What's the hell I was 8 at those times. I've missed so much and can't get it back. Aekton (talk) 09:48, 25 October 2012 (UTC)


 * OpenDoc for OS/2 that can be downloaded from Hobbes is named OD124OS2.EXE. I guess, it means latest OpenDoc for Windows might be named OD124WIN.EXE. Aekton (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 17:44, 30 October 2012 (UTC)

somFree
http://forums.nekochan.net/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=16726016 Aekton (talk) 12:17, 10 December 2012 (UTC)

https://sourceforge.net/projects/somfree/ Aekton (talk) 05:48, 11 January 2013 (UTC)

Release-to-Release Binary Compatibility
I'd say this article has a big problem WRT Release-to-Release Binary Compatibility (RRBC). The section Comparison of support for compiled class libraries mentions RRBC as referenced earlier. Took me several minutes to understand what that means. There's a cite to a book (with ISBN) and a link. But, I don't have the book; can't access a book to it online and the link is dead! I don't think an article should depend on external info like this (either as a book or a link). And since I don't have the book, I'm going to remove mention of the RRBC.

I guess I could buy the book, but not gonna. Stevebroshar (talk) 14:30, 23 June 2024 (UTC)