The Rise and Fall of CORBA

PHP

The first real contract I signed, my first professional venture into the IT industry, was for maintenance and development (with maintenance comprising the lion's share of the work) of an e-commerce system written in PHP. The language did not leave a lasting good impression on me. I would describe the whole thing as infirm, shaky, resulting in software with similar traits.

Perl

My second big project was at a startup developing a distributed system for managing store chains. It was a great adventure: embedded Linux point-of-sale terminals, interacting with payment systems, working within government-mandated constraints, with clear end-goal in mind. The focus on a single, well-defined use-case was what allowed us to deliver a great, in my opinion, product.

So, what was wrong?

Perl was wrong.

It was the favourite language of our CTO, and he decided that everything would be written in Perl. We have struggled against the language, and against the ecosystem around it. Ultimately, we managed to tame it, but was the it worth the cost? Seeing how the company is no more, I would say it was not. For a job you should choose a proper tool, and leave your pet languages and frameworks for hobby tinkering over the weekends.

Java

The virtual machine Java runs on is a marvel, but the language is garbage. The ecosystem around it is not much better... Convoluted, complicated, cumbersome, and a few other non especially flattering adjectives. Maybe it got better since the last time I looked, but from the glimpses I sometimes get, I doubt it.

CORBA

No. Just no.

If you ever find yourself wondering how to do communication between processes running in a distributed systems, and think that you should look at that CORBA stuff...

Yeah, what Michael Jordan said.

Instead of subjecting yourself to this Corrupting, Overcomplicated, Reprehensible, Barbaric Abomination, that will make you resent the very industry you work in, see what a bunch of smart fellows at Ericsson did and learn you some Erlang.