Re: [Orbit-python-list] ORBit-Python 0.2.0 released

[Christian R. R. <ki...@as...>]

On 3 Apr 2001, Jason Tackaberry wrote:

> After a year of off-and-on development, I have finally released version
> 0.2.0.

And this is definitely news. Congratulations Jason, Roland, and everybody
else that worked on orbit-python during the period.

>    * Seamless Python <-> CORBA bindings
>    * Python mapping spec compliant
>
> These two goals often seem to work against each other.  For example, I
> want transparent accessor functions (i.e. obj.myint = 1 instead of
> obj._set_myint(1)), but the mapping spec requires that the accessor
> pairs be available.  O-P supports both approaches, but it should be made
> clear to the programmer that choosing the transparent accessors is going
> to result in non-compliant code.  I've also been considering coersion
> between CORBA.Any and Python objects, but this too would break the spec.
> These sorts of issues will need to be worked out; expect discussions
> here and on the Python dosig list.

I believe the spec is important to a certain point, and beyond that, it's
nonsense. The spec is there to guarantee portability between ORBs, but if
you care very little about it, there's good reason to implement convenient
mechanisms as options.

My personal opinion is that there should be a 'strict' mode and a 'o-p'
mode, and implementing as far as it's possible both options in the
codebase. I understand this does elevate complexity in the sense that
methods will have dual behaviour, but it's not undoable, and the benefits
are certainly important. The two points mentioned are very important, IMO:

- Transparent Accessors
- Any Coercion

to acheive the 'total' transparency feature. Python's dynamic nature is
tied nicely to Any coercion, since you can really take advantage of the
flexibility types give us. And accessors.. well, do we really want to
keep calling underscored methods? ;-)

AFAIC the spec is broken if it doesn't take into account these aspects. I
could, of course, be completely wrong.

Take care,
--
/\/\ Christian Reis, Senior Engineer, Async Open Source, Brazil
~\/~ http://async.com.br/~kiko/ | [+55 16] 274 4311