CORBADEV: Re: [Biocorba-l] report on Anys in CORBA::ORBit

[Juha Muilu]

Ewan Birney wrote:
> 
> Hmmm. This confirms my suspicisions. I would suspect a similar mess in
> fnorb/omniorb python.
> 
> I am all for using strings in name-value pairs. Nearly all current uses of
> name value pairs are string-compatible (a string, a number or a float). I

Types of qualifier values. Cut out from the EMBL IDL:

	case 2: boolean applicable;
	case 1: string  text;
	case 3: long    integer;
	case 4: float   real;

	case 17: type::TranslationException translation_exception;
	case 18: type::CodonTranslation codon_translation;
	case 19: type::AntiCodon anti_codon;
	case 20: type::SpliceConsensus splice_consensus;
	case 21: type::RepeatUnit repeat_unit;
	case 22: type::DbXref db_xref;

E.g. AntiCodon, TranslationException and RepeatUnit contains location
info which cannot be expressed properly using string. Another question
is then how useful that info is? DbXref can be converted to Identifier,
which is string.

Also, we like to maintain compatibility with the bioJava, were type of
annotation property is Object 

It is likely that more cases where Anys are needed  will come up

Any solutions?

> think name value pairs are evil outside of defined dictionaries and we
> should be against them anyway.
> 
> anys just make life difficult and annoying. My 2p.
> 
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> Ewan Birney. Mobile: +44 (0)7970 151230, Work: +44 1223 494420
> <birney@ebi.ac.uk>.
> -----------------------------------------------------------------

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