Acronym

Meaning

ADO

ActiveX Data Objects, a set of ActiveX components for using Microsoft’s OLEDB technology to access and modify database information.

B2B

Business-to-business. This refers to interoperability between disparate systems in different organisations.

BAS

Borland AppServer. Borland’s application server, compliant to J2EE 1.2 and which integrates CORBA and EJB support.

BASM

Built-in ASeMbler, the inline assembler in Delphi 5 and earlier.

BDE

Borland Database Engine. Technology delivered in every version of Delphi to allow data access.

CHASM

CHuck’s ASeMbler. The new inline assembler in Delphi 6, written to be readily portable to other platforms (already in Kylix), and with wide-ranging instruction support. This was designed by Chuck Jazdzewski, Delphi’s Chief R&D Architect.

CLX

Component Library for X-platform. The source code compatible class library used by Kylix and available in Delphi.

COM

Component Object Model, Microsoft’s client/server object-based model designed to enable interaction between software components and applications through interfaces.

COM+

The extension to COM introduced in Windows 2000. It integrates technologies from MTS into the standard COM services.

CORBA

Common Object Request Broker Architecture, a cross-platform specification adopted by the OMG to address the complexity of developing object applications. It defines an IDL for defining object interfaces , the protocols for remote communication, and a number of standard services.

DCOM

Distributed COM. This is Microsoft’s mechanism for extending COM applications so they can distributed over multiple machines.

DOM

Document Object Model. The standard that specifies how the content, structure and appearance of Web documents can be programmatically updated. The XML DOM provides a simple means of reading and writing data to and from an XML tree structure.

DTD

Document Type Definition. This is an XML grammar used to define the content model of an XML document. Part of the XML 1.0 specification, to be superseded with XSDs.

EJB

Enterprise JavaBean. This is a server-resident Java software component used in a client/server application environment.

ETM

External Translation Manager. The utility provided with Delphi 6 to allow applications to be translated. This separate tool replaces the ITE from Delphi 5.

HTTP

HyperText Transfer Protocol, the communication protocol used by Web servers

IBX

InterBase Express. A set of direct-access components that let you use InterBase databases without using the BDE or ADO.

IDE

Integrated Development Environment, the design-time environment that Delphi applications are developed, compiled and debugged within.

IDL

Interface Definition Language, a syntax used for describing interfaces of objects or routines used in distributed applications.

IIOP

Internet Inter-ORB Protocol, the communication protocol used between two CORBA ORBs. This is basically TCP/IP with some CORBA-defined message exchanges.

ITE

Integrated Translation Environment, the Delphi 5 term for Delphi 6’s Translation Tools (Translation Manager, Resource DLL Wizard, and Translation Repository).

J2EE

Java 2 platform Enterprise Edition, a platform-independent, Java-centric environment from Sun for developing online Web-based enterprise applications.

MTS

Microsoft Transaction Server. A set of services (such as resource management, transactions, security and lifetime management) designed to integrate COM objects in a large, distributed environment.

OMG

Object Management Group. The body that looks after the CORBA specification. It is a consortium of over 700 companies, but which doesn’t include Microsoft (who have their own competing standard, DCOM).

ORB

Object Request Broker. The runtime software that handles communication in a CORBA application. Client and server applications communicate by passing messages through the ORB. The ORB is a co-ordinated set of utilities running on different machines.

RIO

Remote Interfaced Object. This is a Delphi object that can be directly manipulated from another application. Typically used to allow a Delphi SOAP client to directly access an object providing a Delphi-written Web Service.

RRP

Recommended Retail Price.

RTL

Run-Time Library. The basic procedure/functions available to all ObjectPascal programs

RTTI

Run-Time Type Information, information about types that is made available to a running application.

SIDL

Simplified IDL

SOAP

Simple Object Access Protocol, a standard lightweight protocol for exchanging information in a decentralised, distributed environment. It uses XML to encode remote procedure calls and typically uses HTTP as a communications protocol. The SOAP specification is at http://www.w3.org/TR/SOAP.

TCP/IP

Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. The most widespread networking protocol forming the base of many networks including the Internet.

UK-BUG

United Kingdom Borland User Group, home page at  www.ukbug.co.uk.

VCL

Visual Component Library, the class library used by Delphi

WSDL

Web Service Definition Language, used in documents that describe Web services

XDR

XML Data Schema Reduced, an example of an XML schema system.

XML

eXtensible Markup Language, a markup language for describing structured data which is similar to HTML but the tags describe the information’s structure rather than its display characteristics. The XML specification is at http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml.

XSD

XML Schema Definition, a more comprehensive and rigorous method of defining the content model of an XML document than a DTD.

XSL

eXtensible Stylesheet Language, a language for expressing stylesheets for XML.