IDL for SAX2

[uche.ogbuji at fourthought.com]

> 
> * Lars Marius Garshol
> |
> | Many things in SAX won't wash in IDL, such as the use of the
> | Java-specific InputStream, Reader and Locale objects.

<SNIP-MY-REPLIES-AND-LARS-FOLLOWUPS />

I understand your point much better than after your first post, thanks.  I had 
the impression that you were saying that certain interfaces that happen to be 
implemented in Java could not be implemented in IDL.

So you say that IDL is more useful if one desires direct language and platform 
transparency, rather than as a general protocol-definition language.  I agree 
with that assessment, but I'll also point out that it's no worse in that 
regard than Java.

All of the litany of non-Java language-specific elements you mention still 
need to be translated from Java, as they would from IDL, so I still don't see 
how that acts as an argument against IDL.  Java doesn't support Python's 
__getitem__ semantics function, for instance.

When using IDL purely for design presentation, you can add all the comments 
you like to motivate language-specific features.  At least, then you have a 
common core, and the language-specific elements are a clear departure, rgather 
than something one has to puzzle out from the behavior of Java.

If there were another language that supports defining the interface with more 
flexibility for language-specific constructs, I wouldn't mind using that 
rather than IDL.  Do you have any to suggest?

As it is, however, as parsers come in C, C++, Python, Java, Perl, etc., and I 
don't see why we shouldn't use the most widely recognized middle-ground 
language for sharing interface between these languages (maybe recognition is 
the politics you were referring to earlier, but I choose to believe that IDL 
has real merits).

But as I type, I realize that the great majority of contributors to SAX2 seem 
to have a Java bent, so maybe it's just best for Dave Meggison to publish 
Java-SAX2, and to have it translated to IDL (I guess I'll volunteer to do so, 
as I'm the lone advocate so far).  I do think that this will help others 
outside this list as they have to implement SAX2 in their work.  After all, we 
want more standardization around SAX, right?

-- 
Uche Ogbuji
FourThought LLC, IT Consultants
uche.ogbuji at fourthought.com	(970)481-0805
Software engineering, project management, Intranets and Extranets
http://FourThought.com		http://OpenTechnology.org



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