[cosmic-users] Usage questions on IDL generator

[Balachandran Natarajan]

Kitty-

        Thanks for your time. 

On Monday, 12 September, 2005 at 19:30:27 -0500, Krishnakumar B wrote:
[...]
 > >     #include "bar.idl"
 > >
 > >         interface foo 
 > >         {
 > >           bar bar_factory ();
 > >         };
 > >
 > >     which is not something I need. Can someone please point to the
 > >     right clicks to achieve this?
 > 
 > I don't think it's possible to do this right now.  I will let Jeff answer
 > this once he gets back from Germany.  

Okay. 

 > > (2) How do I specify local policies? For example a policy like this
 > >
 > >     local interface MyPOlicy : CORBA::Policy
 > >     {};
 > >
 > >     through PICML/IDLML?
 > 
 > If you meant "How do I specify local interfaces?", you can do it by setting
 > the local attribute on the interface to "Yes".

I have been able to decipher the local part. I am interested in
specifying a local interface as a policy, which should then spit out
an IDL like the above. Probably I am missing some switeches out here. 

 > But if you are referring to
 > the problem with error in importing, it is because tao_picml.exe
 > recognizes  the type CORBA::Policy as a built-in type, but
 > erroneously generates a dangling reference to the built-in type.

That was the next problem. Thanks for the explanation. 

 > The other day we had the same 
 > problem with an IDL file which was actually an IDL 2 equivalent mapping of
 > an IDL 3 file.  I think that this is because the built-in types of CORBA
 > don't find a representation in the model.  I believe this is a limitation
 > that needs to be addressed.

Yes, I saw that after I sent this email out. 

 > > (3) How do I add documentation in the model which can be spit out as
 > >     doxygen or javadoc style documentation in the generated  IDL?
 > 
 > Currently there is no support for this.  But this should be straightforward
 > to add.

Cool!

 > 
 > > (4) How do I constraint check the model for documentation?
 > 
 > I am not sure I understand the problem.  Do you want to check the
 > constraints, or do you want to find if there is any documentation
 > associated with the model.

I want to find whether documentation is associated with the model. I
would tend to think that the availability of documentation as a
constraint on the model. Am I making sense?

 > > (5) How do I create an XMI file or a UML model from the model we
 > >     create for IDL generation?
 > 
 > Currently not possible.  I am not sure this capability is even on the
 > table.

Okay. How do your others users transfer the model to other modelling
tools? 

 > > (6) Is there a way to plug in an activity digram along with the IDL
 > >     model? Looks like this may be an useful feature if someone wants
 > >     to understand the interaction model between objects represented by
 > >     the IDLML.
 > 
 > Yes, I know, but there is a limit to what one can do with icons :-)
 > Seriously, I am interested in adding such a capability.  I will let you
 > know once I make some progress.

Great! Thanks. 

 > > Any help would be much appreciated. If the above are all in the works,
 > > please let me know when will they be available?
 > 
 > Please note that the IDL exporter is not as robust as the importer.
 > For example, if you have methods with more than one arguments, you
 > might find that the order of the arguments change from one run to
 > another run of the exporter.  There were also some issues with
 > generating unsigned versions of IDL basic types.

Great and thanks for the additional info. I did see the argument order
change. Its okay for a tool which hasn't seen the first major revision
yet. 

Thanks
Bala