From: satyan at ppllc.com (Sunil Satyan)
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 1999 12:53:59 -0400
Subject: CORBA IDL AND SCRIPTS
Message-ID: <3729E026.D9D29B1@ppllc.com>
Content-Length: 2196
X-UID: 1513                                                  

Hi All,
 Hi. I was looking for someone to speak to regarding a few questions
that I had about IDL. I would be glad if  someone  can aswer my
question:

 a) Given that we are moving towards CORBA, we would like to specify all
our interfaces ( all of them not
     necessarily pertaining to client/server) in IDL. i.e., the
interfaces we specify must be capable of being used
     by CORBA (which is OK) AND be available in any scripting language -
PERL, PYTHON, TCL etc. I      recently
     evaluated an open system tool called SWIG (Simplfied Wrapper and
Interface Generator) that allows one
     to define classes or C-functions in an interface file (with ANSI
C/C++ syntax). After the SWIG generator
     is run on the interface, it outputs the bindings required for a
particular target scripting language - tcl,
      python, perl, etc. These interface defined classes/functions are
then directly available in the target scripting
     language. For instance, if example.i contained a function "int
fact(int);" and example.c contained the
     implementation for the function, running SWIG on example.i will
produce a wrapper file that, when
     built together with the implementation file, makes the function
available in the target scripting language.
     Thats SWIG in a nutshell and fits well with our needs.

     Now, with CORBA's IDL in the picture, we are faced with defining
client/server interfaces in CORBA
     specific IDL. But, we'd like to define ALL interfaces - be it
scripting languare interfaces, CORBA interfaces
     - in ONE type of IDL and generate either a) Scriping language
bindings or b) CORBA client/server bindings.
     This allows for consistency in interface definition even for
disparate usage of these interfaces.

     My question is: Is there any support for generating Scripting
language bindings from CORBA IDL or a
     translator (less preferable) that can translate from CORBA IDL to a
scripting language IDL  ??

     I realize that I may have to direct these questions to the
appropriate CORBA implementation Vendor.
     But, I figured I would turn turn here for any suggestions!

     Thanks a million!
     Sunil .
     satyan at ppllc.com





