Bonobo is a component model for creating reusable software components and compound documents.
Components can be written in different languages and run on top of different runtimes;
they need only adhere to an interface specified with the Interface Definition Language (IDL).
Bonobo helps fill the gaps in CORBA, providing the additional interfaces and specifications needed to support consistent components.
Libbonobo Reference Manual - http://library.gnome.org/devel/libbonobo/stable/
LibbonoboUI Reference Manual - http://library.gnome.org/devel/libbonoboui/stable/
Corba
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonobo_(component_model)
Bonobo is based on the CORBA architecture.
Bonobo is built off of CORBA, allowing components to run in seperate processes.
CORBA's flexible design even allows components to run on seperate machines over a network.
Usage
Using Bonobo enables the applets to communicate effectively with the panel, affording users a consistent interface.
You may wish to use Bonobo to provide complex graphical components that can be embedded into applications.
ORBit
ORBit, GNOME's CORBA implementation.
GNOME provides its own fast and lightweight CORBA implementation with ORBit.
ORBit is an incredibly fast CORBA implementation.
Although you will rarely need to use CORBA without Bonobo, it can be used directly.
For instance, GNOME's accessibility infastructure uses CORBA
to allow assistive tools to inspect and interact with running applications.
The GNOME release has officially deprecated Bonobo sometime since GNOME 2.4
Bonobo, libIDL and ORBit have been deprecated in favor of D-Bus and other technologies.
Developers have been advised to use or switch to an alternative such as D-Bus
For most IPC needs, however, GNOME is moving towards D-Bus, as integrating D-Bus into applications is considerably easier.
MATE 1.6 removes some deprecated libraries, moving from mate-conf (a fork of GConf) to GSettings,
and from mate-corba (a fork of GNOME's Bonobo) to D-Bus.
Migrate from dbus-glib to GDBus
http://wiki.mate-desktop.org/roadmap