

Level 3 Core Nitpicks: Alternative IDL descriptions and references

From: Steve Barber <sbarber@randomwalk.com>
Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 14:42:18 -0400 (EDT)
Message-ID: <35039.>
To: <www-dom@w3.org>
Apologies for the nitpicks, but since the DOM Level 3 will likely become a
Recommendation, may as well be precise.

In http://www.w3.org/TR/DOM-Level-3-Core/introduction.html is the following

"Note: OMG IDL is used only as a language-independent and implementation-
specific computing environments. The Document Object Model can be
implemented in any computing environment, and does not require the object
binding runtimes generally associated with such IDLs."

The same language is in the DOM Level 2 Core (http://www.w3.org/TR/DOM-

Proposal #1:

Replace the second sentence of the Note ("Various other IDLs could have
been used ([COM], [Java IDL], [MIDL], ...).") with:

"Other IDLs such as [MIDL] could have been used."

Delete the Java IDL entry from I.2 ("Informative References").

Delete the COM entry from I.2 ("Informative References").

Rationale #1:

Java IDL is not a different IDL than OMG IDL. JavaIDL is Sun's
*implementation* of a CORBA-compliant ORB that is compatible with some
level of OMG IDL.

COM is arguably not itself an IDL. MIDL is the IDL used in COM, and MIDL is
mentioned elsewhere in the note.

Proposal #2:
In I.2 ("Informative References"), the URL given for MIDL no longer works.
I propose replacing it with one that does. Here's one that worked for me,

If there's a need to list more than one alternative IDL, there are others.
ONC RPC and DCE RPC come to mind, though these are not completely object-
oriented. For a generalization of the IDL concept, see

Steve Barber
Senior Consultant
Random Walk Computing, Inc.
Co-author, Programming with JavaIDL (Wiley 1997)
Received on Tuesday, 23 April 2002 18:28:22 GMT
