Re: esotheric questions

Roberto Juarez wrote:

> Hello avaloners,
> 
> I find the Avalon project exiciting and worth working with it.
> 
> On one hand I see it as a great learning example of Object Oriented
> Design; in particular, using Object Technology to build a framework
> for component based software. On the other hand, I see it as a great
> tool for learning Component Technology; in particular, using
> Component Technology to build software systems (tipically servers).
> The second point is where I get lost. I do not refere here to the ins
> and outs of Avalon, as this can be tackled with dedication and energy
> and, of course, the Avalon community. I am constantly getting lost
> because I do not have a good background on componentware. And this is
> the subject of this message. If someone can give me guidance on
> learning component technology this would be really great.

You can find a lot of the theoretical stuff here:

   http://avalon.apache.org/central/cop/index.html

For me I think the practical content is probably a better way to ramp 
up.  Download the latest release and launch into the tutorials.

   http://avalon.apache.org/central/about/tutorials/index.html

> To be a little more specific, let me mention the Pico container. Had
> I know the required knowledge, I believe I could be able to
> discriminate between both. For instance, I do not know if
> Avalon-based components can be deployed in a EJB container.

Typically (or at least in my experience) I'll use Avalon style 
components as small well managed building blocks.  Using Avalon's 
container I can assemble those building blocks into composite 
components.  I can assemble composites into other applications, etc. 
etc.  The basic unit is the physical component - basically a well 
managed object - and using this model you easily scale up to complex 
systems.

As to deployment - typically one would deploy the Avalon container in 
something like an EJB, Servlet, CLI handler - or whatever and from the 
embedding application can interact with the container to access services 
provided by components.  This area is the subject of "facilities" - a 
term we use to describe a component that interacts with a container. 
Some of the facilities we are working on include an HTTP facility that 
handles redirection of incoming HTTP messages to components.  Using 
these approaches - the component is completely unaware of the enclosing 
environment - it just does its job.

Cheers, Steve.

> I suppose there is no simple nor single answer to my questions
> (esotheric questions), but a discussion on these topics might be
> helpful.
> 
> Best regards.
> 
> 
> Roberto Juárez Maldonado Analyst Programmer
> 
> 
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