Initializing The ORB CORBA::ORB_var orb; // Initialize the ORB try { orb = CORBA::ORB_init (argc, argv, 0); } catch (CORBA::SystemException exception) { cerr << "CORBA::ORB_init"; return -1; } Note that when the ORB variable (ORB_var) is created, it points to no ORB object. Only assigning the return value of ORB_init into this variable makes it contain meaningful contents.