Why would you want to implement a system using distributed objects? Maybe you have written a client/server system using other technologies (such as TCP based sockets, RPC or DCE). You may wonder what the motivation is to move to “distributed objects”? To answer that question, we will first review the benefits of object-oriented technology; then we will see how these benefits are utilized when object-oriented technology is taken to the network.

Object-oriented concepts, tools, and techniques have been with us for the best part of three decades. During that time the technologies based on object-oriented principles have matured: languages, development environments, case tools, and databases. Applications have become more distributed in nature. Development tools have matured to support the construction of distributed systems.

Quick Review of Object-Oriented Concepts

This book doesn't aim to teach you object-oriented concepts. In this section we will merely review some of the salient aspects. For further information, I recommend that you read one of the many books on object-oriented design such as “Object-Oriented Software Engineering” by Jacobson et al. (See References at the end of this chapter.)

Over time, systems have increased in complexity. Software construction had to match that complexity. The object-oriented paradigm enables us to manage the complexity of modern systems. Complexity is handled through classes, inheritance, polymorphism, and objects.