General enhancements

• C++ programmers can use DirectToSOM (DTS) C++ compilers (available from independent software vendors) as an alternative to the SOMobjects Toolkit's C++ bindings. (A DTS C++ compiler uses SOM classes to implement C++ objects.) The support provided by SOMobjects for DTS C++ consists of various enhancements to the SOM API (useful to SOM programmers in general), and a new emitter that produces DTS C++ header files corresponding to SOM IDL. DTS C++ programs include these ".hh" header files, which are emitted as described under "Generating binding files" in Chapter 4, "SOM IDL and the SOM Compiler."

• With this release, TCP/IP support is now available for SOMobjects For Windows. Also, for OS/2 users only, SOMobjects now supports the 32-bit TCP/IP version 2.0, which offers greater performance over the 16-bit TCP/IP version 1.2.1. These are described in your SOMobjects Installation/Configuration Guide.

  SOMobjects enhancements

• A new default process whereby SOMobjects initializes and destroys objects more efficiently (using the somDefaultInit and somDestruct methods). See "Initializing and Uninitializing Objects" in Chapter 5, "Implementing Classes in SOM."

• A new kind of method, nonstatic, that is similar to a C++ nonstatic member function. It is normally invoked using offset resolution but can use any form of SOMobjects method resolution. See "The four kinds of SOM methods" in Chapter 5, "Implementing Classes in SOM" and the nonstatic modifier under "Modifier statements" in Chapter 4, "SOM IDL and the SOM Compiler."

• A new kind of data, staticdata, that is similar to C++ static data members. A staticdata variable is not stored in an object; rather, the ClassData structure of the implementing class contains a pointer to the variable. See the staticdatamodifier under "Modifier statements" in Chapter 4, "SOM IDL and the SOM Compiler."

• Two new modifiers, somallocate and somdeallocate, used to indicate that a user-written procedure should be executed to allocate/deallocate memory for class instances when the somAllocate or somDeallocate method is invoked. See these modifiers under "Modifier statements" in Chapter 4, "SOM IDL and the SOM Compiler."

• The ability to "cast" objects. See the methods somCastObj and somResetObj.

• New support for loading/unloading class libraries. (This was introduced in SOMobjects For Windows and is now applicable on OS/2 as well.) See the SOM_ClassLibrary macro in the SOMobjects Base Toolkit Programmers Reference Manual.

  DSOM enhancements

• A new command-line tool, dsom, for managing DSOM servers (starting, restarting, stopping, querying, and so forth). See "The dsom server manager utility" in Chapter 6, "Distributed SOM." In addition, a corresponding programmatic interface is provided by methods of the new SOMDServerMgr class. See that class and its methods in the SOMobjects Base Toolkit Programmers Reference Manual.

• A new command-line tool, somdchk, that performs environment validation. See "Verifying the DSOM environment with somdchk" in Chapter 6, "Distribute SOM."

• New SOM IDL modifiers for memory management of parameters: memory_management= corba, caller_owns_parameters, caller_owns_result, object_owns_parameters, and object_owns_result. The individual modifiers are described under "Modifier statements" in Chapter 4, "SOM IDL and the SOM Compiler." See "Memory management" in Chapter 6, "Distributed SOM," for a complete discussion of the subject. This memory-management support also includes the new method somdReleaseResources and the functions somdExceptionFree and SOMD_NoORBfree, described in the SOMobject Base Toolkit Programmers Reference Manual.

• A graphical user interface to the DSOM `regimpl' utility on OS/2, called pregimpl. See "Registration steps using `pregimpl' or `wregimpl', " in Chapter 6, "Distributed SOM."

• Support for the CORBA constant OBJECT_NIL. In addition, the is_nil method of SOMDObject can now be used for local objects as well as NULL pointers.

• Support for passing self-referential structs and unions (those valid in IDL) in remote method calls.

• Support for local/remote transparency in DSOM's object-destruction methods. See "Destroying remote objects."

• Ability for users to define customized base proxy classes. See "Customizing the default base proxy class."

• Ability for users to specify an upper limit on the number of threads that a server can spawn, via the SOMDNUMTHREADS environment variable. See this variable under "Preparing the environment."

• Improved error handling and performance improvements.

• More sample programs distributed with the SOMobjects Toolkit.

  Metaclass Framework

• SOMMBeforeAfter - a metaclass that enables the programming of "before/after" metaclasses, whose instances execute a particular method before and after each method invocation. See Chapter 8, "The Metaclass Framework," for information about the new Metaclass Framework. Individual metaclasses, along with related classes and methods, are documented in the SOMobjects Base Toolkit Programmers Reference Manual.

• SOMMTraced- a utility metaclass to do tracing.