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This document is also available at the following URL:
https://www.dre.vanderbilt.edu/~schmidt/ACE.html
All software and documentation is available via both anonymous ftp and
http.
THE ADAPTIVE COMMUNICATION ENVIRONMENT (ACE)
An Object-Oriented Network Programming Toolkit
----------------------------------------
Overview of ACE
The ADAPTIVE Communication Environment (ACE) is an object-oriented
(OO) toolkit that implements fundamental design patterns for
communication software. ACE provides a rich set of reusable C++
wrappers and frameworks that perform common communication software
tasks across a range of OS platforms, including Win32/Win64, most
versions of UNIX (e.g., SunOS, Linux, NetBSD, and FreeBSD),
real-time operating systems (e.g., VxWorks, Chorus, LynxOS, and QNX),
and MVS OpenEdition. A single source tree is used for all
these platforms and porting ACE to other platforms is relatively easy.
The communication software components provided by ACE include event
demultiplexing and event handler dispatching, service initialization,
interprocess communication, shared memory management, message routing,
dynamic (re)configuration of distributed services, multi-threading,
and concurrency control. There are both C++ and Java versions of ACE
available.
ACE is targeted for developers of high-performance and real-time
communication services and applications on UNIX, POSIX, and Win32
platforms. ACE simplifies the development of OO network applications
and services that utilize interprocess communication, event
demultiplexing, explicit dynamic linking, and concurrency. ACE
automates system configuration and reconfiguration by dynamically
linking services into applications at run-time and executing these
services in one or more processes or threads.
ACE is currently used in commercial projects and products by dozens of
companies including Ericsson, Bellcore, Siemens, Motorola, Kodak,
Boeing, Lucent, DEC, Lockheed Martin, and SAIC. Commercial support
for ACE is available from several companies as listed at
https://github.com/DOCGroup/ACE_TAO/wiki/ACE-and-TAO-Commercial-support
----------------------------------------
C++ Wrappers for OS Interfaces
The lower-level portions of ACE provide a set of portable and
type-secure C++ wrappers that encapsulate the following C language OS
interfaces:
. IPC mechanisms
-- e.g., Internet- and UNIX-domain sockets, TLI, Named
Pipes (for UNIX and Win32) and STREAM pipes;
. Event demultiplexing
-- e.g., select(), poll(), and Win32
WaitForMultipleObjects and I/O completion ports;
. Multi-threading and synchronization
-- e.g., POSIX Pthreads, and Win32 threads;
. Explicit dynamic linking
-- e.g., dlopen/dlsym on UNIX and LoadLibrary/GetProc
on Win32;
. Memory-mapped files and shared memory management
-- e.g., BSD mmap(), SYSV shared memory, and Win32
shared memory;
. System V IPC
-- e.g., shared memory, semaphores, message queues.
The OS Adaptation Layer shields the upper levels of ACE from platform
dependencies associated with the underlying OS interfaces.
----------------------------------------
Frameworks and Class Categories
ACE also contains a higher-level network programming framework that
integrates and enhances the lower-level C++ wrappers. This framework
supports the dynamic configuration of concurrent distributed services
into applications. The framework portion of ACE contains the
following class categories:
. The Reactor
-- Supports both Reactive and Proactive I/O;
. The Service Configurator
-- Support dynamic (re)configuration of objects;
. The ADAPTIVE Service Executive
-- A user-level implementation of System V STREAMS,
that supports modular integration of
hierarchically-related communication services;
. Concurrency
-- Various types of higher-level concurrency
control and synchronization patterns (such as
Polymorphic Futures and Active Objects);
. Shared Malloc
-- Components for managing dynamically allocation
of shared and local memory;
----------------------------------------
Distributed Services and Components
Finally, ACE provides a standard library of distributed services that
are packaged as components. These service components play two roles
in ACE:
1. They provide reusable components for common distributed
system tasks such as logging, naming, locking, and time
synchronization.
2. They illustrate how to utilize ACE features such as the
Reactor, Service Configurator, Service Initialization,
Concurrency, and IPC components.
----------------------------------------
Middleware Applications
ACE has been used in research and development projects at many
universities and companies. For instance, it has been used to build
avionics systems at Boeing, telecommunication systems at Bellcore,
Ericsson, Motorola, and Lucent; medical imaging systems at Siemens and
Kodak; and many academic research projects. Two example middleware
applications provided with the ACE release include:
1. The ACE ORB (TAO) -- TAO is a real-time implementation of
CORBA built using the framework components and patterns
provided by ACE.
2. JAWS -- JAWS is a high-performance, adaptive Web server
built using the components in ACE.
----------------------------------------
OBTAINING ACE
ACE may be obtained electronically from
https://download.dre.vanderbilt.edu. This release contains the source
code, test drivers, and example applications (including JAWS) for C++
wrapper libraries and the higher-level ACE network programming
framework developed as part of the ADAPTIVE project at the University
of California, Irvine, Washington University, St. Louis, and
Vanderbilt University.
You can get The ACE ORB (TAO) in a companion release at the same URL.
----------------------------------------
ACE DOCUMENTATION AND TUTORIALS
Many of the C++ wrappers and higher-level components have been
described in issues of the C++ Report, as well as in proceedings of
many journals, conferences, and workshops.
A collection of white papers and tutorial handouts are included at
http://www.dre.vanderbilt.edu/~schmidt/ACE-papers.html
This page contains PDF versions of various papers that describe
different aspects of ACE.
This material is also available available via the WWW at URL:
http://www.dre.vanderbilt.edu/~schmidt/ACE.html
----------------------------------------
ACE GITHUB ISSUES AND DISCUSSIONS
Github issues and discussions are available at
https://github.com/DOCGroup/ACE_TAO for
discussing bug fixes, enhancements, and porting issues regarding ACE.
----------------------------------------
BUILDING AND INSTALLING ACE
Please refer to the $ACE_ROOT/ACE-INSTALL.html file for
information on how to build and test the ACE wrappers. The
BIBLIOGRAPHY file contains information on where to obtain articles
that describe the ACE wrappers and the ADAPTIVE system in more detail.
The current release has been tested extensively, but if you find any
bugs, please open a issue or discussion at
https://github.com/DOCGroup/ACE_TAO using the
$ACE_ROOT/PROBLEM-REPORT-FORM. Please use the same form to submit
questions, comments, etc.
----------------------------------------
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Please see the file `$ACE_ROOT/THANKS' for a list of the thousands of
people who've contributed to ACE and TAO over the years.
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