PS/SL MIDDLEWARE PROJECT - MINUTES CORE TEAM REVIEW March  17, 1999
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Present: K. Kostro, F. Di Maio, A. Risso, V. Baggiolini
Excused: M. Vanden Eynden

Agenda
======

-  Discuss administrative issues for the Middleware Workshop
-  Discuss the presentation form and contents 

Administrative Issues
---------------------

Because of a clash between the planned date for the MW workshop and the 
PCR meeting (Friday 26, morning), the workshop has to be postponed, 
either to Friday 26 afternoon or to Monday 29 afternoon. Franck and Kris 
will investigate the most suitable date.

Franck has asked PS group leaders for additional names for the mailing 
list on which the workshop will be announced. He will gather the replies 
and send the result to Pierre Charrue. However, since Franck only expects 
a few more names to arise, Kris can already send the announcement out to 
the existing list.

A model for timekeeping during the presentations has been agreed on: the 
speaker will be informed when he has 10, 5, and 1 minutes of time left.


Presentation Form and Contents
------------------------------

It was decided that all speakers use the same PowerPoint master slide. 
The layout of this master was agreed on, and Alessandro will prepare 
and distribute it to the others.

The abstract proposed by Kris has been agreed on with minor 
modifications.

The goal of the presentations was reaffirmed: it shall be a tutorial at 
which people learn something about middleware. Understandability is more 
important than completeness - it is better to cover some key concepts 
and services of MW well rather than to rush through all of them 
superficially.

The structure for the part on ORB-based MW was discussed, and two 
alternative approaches were brought up: 
- A common introduction presents the main MW services in a standard-independent way. This is a basis for the following presentations of 
  CORBA, DCOM and RMI. 
- No common introduction is made, each of the speakers explains all 
  services of "their" middleware separately.
The first solution was agreed on. Kris will prepare a short introduction 
in which he describes the main services (naming/directory, Remote method 
call, Subscription-based I/O, Transactions, Security) in a succinct way. 
The others (Alessandro and Vito) will refer to this part in their 
presentations.

The part on RMI will be complemented with an overview over Enterprise 
JavaBeans. Enterprise JavaBeans are the logical counterpart of CORBA in 
the Java world: most CORBA services are defined in the Enterprise 
JavaBeans specifications, whereas RMI only covers the functionality of 
the request broker part of CORBA. The presentation will still fit into 
the 20 minute timeframe planned.

Kris has slightly modified the Middleware Diagram (the one contained in 
the MW project charter) for his presentation: he has added OPC below the 
middleware rather than next to it. 

Actions
=======

- Prepare the common introductory part of the ORB presentation (Kris) before the end of this week
- Prepare an advanced draft of the presentation: all, for Monday 
- Prepare master slide: Alessandro, before the end of this week
- Update the distribution list: Franck
- Check for the best time/date for the workshop: Franck, Kris

Vito