<s>
Distributed	B-Application
Objects	I-Application
Everywhere	I-Application
(	O
DOE	O
)	O
was	O
a	O
long-running	O
Sun	O
Microsystems	O
project	O
to	O
build	O
a	O
distributed	B-Architecture
computing	I-Architecture
environment	O
based	O
on	O
the	O
CORBA	B-Architecture
system	O
in	O
the	O
'	O
back	O
end	O
 '	O
and	O
OpenStep	B-Operating_System
as	O
the	O
user	O
interface	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
First	O
started	O
in	O
1990	O
and	O
announced	O
soon	O
thereafter	O
,	O
it	O
remained	O
vaporware	B-Application
for	O
many	O
years	O
before	O
it	O
was	O
finally	O
released	O
as	O
NEO	O
in	O
1995	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
was	O
sold	O
for	O
only	O
a	O
short	O
period	O
before	O
being	O
dropped	O
(	O
along	O
with	O
OpenStep	B-Operating_System
)	O
in	O
1996	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
its	O
place	O
is	O
what	O
is	O
today	O
known	O
as	O
Enterprise	B-Language
JavaBeans	I-Language
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
the	O
early	O
1990s	O
the	O
'	O
next	O
big	O
thing	O
 '	O
in	O
computing	O
was	O
to	O
use	O
desktop	O
microcomputers	B-Architecture
to	O
display	O
and	O
edit	O
data	O
being	O
provided	O
by	O
mainframes	B-Architecture
and	O
minicomputers	B-Architecture
.	O
</s>
<s>
For	O
instance	O
,	O
SQL	B-Language
required	O
the	O
workstation	O
to	O
download	O
huge	O
data	O
sets	O
and	O
then	O
process	O
them	O
locally	O
,	O
whereas	O
use	O
of	O
terminal	B-Application
emulators	I-Application
left	O
all	O
of	O
the	O
work	O
to	O
the	O
server	O
and	O
provided	O
no	O
GUI	B-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
Standing	O
in	O
the	O
way	O
of	O
this	O
sort	O
of	O
solution	O
was	O
the	O
massive	O
differences	O
in	O
operating	B-General_Concept
systems	I-General_Concept
and	O
programming	O
languages	O
between	O
platforms	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
problem	O
was	O
not	O
so	O
acute	O
on	O
minicomputers	B-Architecture
and	O
mainframes	B-Architecture
where	O
the	O
vendor	O
often	O
specified	O
standards	O
for	O
their	O
libraries	O
,	O
but	O
on	O
microcomputers	B-Architecture
the	O
programming	O
systems	O
were	O
generally	O
delivered	O
by	O
a	O
variety	O
of	O
3rd	O
party	O
companies	O
with	O
no	O
interest	O
in	O
standardization	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
These	O
were	O
actually	O
intended	O
to	O
ease	O
resource	O
use	O
on	O
smaller	O
platforms	O
,	O
by	O
allowing	O
a	O
number	O
of	O
programs	O
using	O
a	O
common	O
resource	O
,	O
like	O
the	O
GUI	B-Application
,	O
to	O
share	O
a	O
single	O
copy	O
of	O
code	O
instead	O
of	O
each	O
loading	O
a	O
separate	O
copy	O
into	O
memory	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
As	O
a	O
side	O
effect	O
of	O
being	O
able	O
to	O
be	O
called	O
from	O
many	O
programs	O
,	O
these	O
systems	O
also	O
defined	O
a	O
standard	O
way	O
to	O
call	O
them	O
,	O
using	O
an	O
interface	B-General_Concept
definition	I-General_Concept
language	I-General_Concept
,	O
or	O
IDL	O
,	O
to	O
allow	O
any	O
language	O
on	O
the	O
platform	O
to	O
understand	O
the	O
code	O
inside	O
the	O
library	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Extending	O
these	O
systems	O
to	O
support	O
remote	B-Operating_System
procedure	I-Operating_System
calls	I-Operating_System
behind	O
the	O
scenes	O
was	O
seen	O
as	O
a	O
natural	O
evolution	O
,	O
providing	O
a	O
solution	O
to	O
the	O
client/server	O
programming	O
problem	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
At	O
the	O
time	O
there	O
were	O
a	O
number	O
of	O
major	O
projects	O
to	O
deliver	O
such	O
a	O
system	O
,	O
including	O
IBM	O
's	O
System	B-Application
Object	I-Application
Model	I-Application
(	O
SOM/DSOM	O
)	O
,	O
NeXT	O
's	O
Portable	B-Application
Distributed	I-Application
Objects	I-Application
,	O
Microsoft	O
's	O
Component	B-Application
Object	I-Application
Model	I-Application
(	O
COM/DCOM	O
)	O
and	O
many	O
CORBA	B-Architecture
flavors	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Sun	O
's	O
solution	O
was	O
based	O
on	O
work	O
in	O
their	O
Spring	B-Application
operating	I-Application
system	I-Application
,	O
which	O
used	O
intercommunicating	O
objects	O
for	O
almost	O
all	O
programming	O
tasks	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Modifying	O
this	O
to	O
work	O
under	O
a	O
'	O
traditional	O
 '	O
Unix	O
like	O
Solaris	B-Application
was	O
not	O
all	O
that	O
difficult	O
,	O
although	O
Unix	O
makes	O
the	O
assumption	O
that	O
all	O
programs	O
run	O
locally	O
,	O
and	O
an	O
interface	O
for	O
remote	O
access	O
had	O
to	O
be	O
added	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
For	O
this	O
,	O
DOE	O
added	O
an	O
object	B-General_Concept
request	I-General_Concept
broker	I-General_Concept
(	O
ORB	O
)	O
that	O
ran	O
on	O
the	O
backoffice	O
servers	O
,	O
listening	O
for	O
DOE	O
requests	O
and	O
handing	O
them	O
off	O
to	O
the	O
proper	O
program	O
to	O
be	O
handled	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
During	O
development	O
,	O
CORBA	B-Architecture
became	O
a	O
key	O
buzzword	O
in	O
the	O
industry	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
prompted	O
a	O
delay	O
while	O
the	O
ORB	O
was	O
re-engineered	O
for	O
CORBA	B-Architecture
support	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Under	O
the	O
CORBA	B-Architecture
model	O
,	O
different	O
objects	O
,	O
like	O
those	O
from	O
DOE	O
or	O
SOM	O
,	O
would	O
be	O
able	O
to	O
interact	O
by	O
sharing	O
a	O
common	O
interface	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Although	O
C++	B-Language
object	O
libraries	O
were	O
becoming	O
common	O
on	O
some	O
platforms	O
,	O
their	O
own	O
SunOS	B-Operating_System
(	O
later	O
known	O
as	O
Solaris	B-Application
)	O
operating	B-General_Concept
system	I-General_Concept
and	O
associated	O
SunView	B-Library
and	O
X	B-Operating_System
window	I-Operating_System
systems	I-Operating_System
were	O
'	O
plain	O
C	O
 '	O
based	O
,	O
while	O
their	O
newer	O
NeWS	O
windowing	O
environment	O
was	O
based	O
on	O
a	O
network-extensible	O
object	O
oriented	O
dialect	O
of	O
PostScript	B-Language
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
order	O
to	O
supply	O
a	O
comprehensive	O
and	O
flexible	O
object	O
programming	O
solution	O
,	O
Sun	O
turned	O
to	O
NeXT	O
and	O
the	O
two	O
developed	O
OpenStep	B-Operating_System
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
idea	O
was	O
to	O
have	O
OpenStep	B-Operating_System
programs	O
calling	O
DOE	O
objects	O
on	O
Sun	O
servers	O
,	O
providing	O
a	O
backoffice-to-frontoffice	O
solution	O
on	O
Sun	O
machines	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
OpenStep	B-Operating_System
was	O
not	O
released	O
until	O
1993	O
,	O
further	O
delaying	O
the	O
project	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
By	O
the	O
time	O
DOE	O
,	O
now	O
known	O
as	O
NEO	O
,	O
was	O
released	O
in	O
1995	O
,	O
Sun	O
had	O
already	O
moved	O
on	O
to	O
Java	B-Language
as	O
their	O
next	O
big	O
thing	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Java	B-Language
was	O
now	O
the	O
GUI	B-Application
of	O
choice	O
for	O
client-side	O
applications	O
,	O
and	O
Sun	O
's	O
OpenStep	B-Operating_System
plans	O
were	O
quietly	O
dropped	O
(	O
see	O
Lighthouse	O
Design	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
NEO	O
was	O
re-positioned	O
as	O
a	O
Java	B-Language
system	O
with	O
the	O
introduction	O
of	O
the	O
"	O
Joe	O
"	O
framework	O
,	O
but	O
it	O
saw	O
little	O
use	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Components	O
of	O
NEO	O
and	O
Joe	O
were	O
eventually	O
subsumed	O
into	O
Enterprise	B-Language
JavaBeans	I-Language
.	O
</s>
<s>
Although	O
distributed	O
objects	O
,	O
and	O
CORBA	B-Architecture
in	O
particular	O
,	O
were	O
the	O
"	O
next	O
big	O
thing	O
"	O
in	O
the	O
early	O
1990s	O
,	O
by	O
the	O
second	O
half	O
of	O
the	O
decade	O
interest	O
in	O
them	O
had	O
essentially	O
disappeared	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Web-based	O
applications	O
running	O
entirely	O
on	O
the	O
server	O
became	O
the	O
new	O
"	O
next	O
big	O
thing	O
"	O
,	O
and	O
the	O
need	O
for	O
a	O
powerful	O
display	O
system	O
on	O
the	O
client	O
side	O
faded	O
,	O
largely	O
replaced	O
by	O
lightweight	O
GUIs	B-Application
based	O
on	O
HTML	B-Language
and	O
JavaScript	B-Language
(	O
"	O
Browser	B-Application
User	I-Application
Interfaces	I-Application
"	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
