The distribution is made of two elements: a zipped file that contains merge modules that are used in 3rd-party installation packages to install COBIA Runtime (also known as COBIA Core), and an installation package of COBIA Software Development Kit (SDK).
COBIA Runtime can be freely used and redistributed. It consists of middleware components that will be installed on the end-user’s computer during installation of COBIA-based Process Modelling Environments (PMEs) and Process Modelling Components (PMCs) developed by a software provider. The COBIA Runtime is intended to be distributed with and utilized by third-party software. The archive also contains a stand-alone installation package that deploys the contents of the above mentioned merge modules.
The COBIA Software Development Kit (SDK) is provided as a stand-alone installation package which distributes a set of components and tools that are used by a software developer to create software that utilizes COBIA as the middleware for CAPE-OPEN interoperability. The SDK includes tools to compile the source code of interfaces developed using the CAPE-OPEN Interface Definition Language (IDL) specifically adapted to COBIA.
Development and maintenance of COBIA is conducted by AmsterCHEM for CO-LaN.
COBIA 1.2.0.2 was released just a few days ago so this new release 1.2.0.3, a maintenance release, calls for some explanations.
CO-LaN is tackling an issue with the CAPE-OPEN Type Libraries/Primary Interop Assemblies distribution: previous installers of these components, when run after the soon-to-be-released version, would simply overwrite the type libraries and some registry entries. This issue prompted CO-LaN to have a look at what happens with COBIA distribution and unfortunately some changes in the distribution logic of COBIA had to be introduced to cope with the same kind of issue. So COBIA 1.2.0.3 is mostly about having distribution packages delivering in a more proper way their components, making them safe from overwriting by older versions, even if not so many older distributions are out there. There is no change to COBIA/COMBIA source code and binaries compared to version 1.2.0.2.
Version 1.2.0.3 resolves the following tickets:
CO-LaN encourages software developers to use version 1.2.0.3.