-*- indented-text -*-

rep-orbit
*********

rep-orbit is a port of Owen Taylor's excellent Perl bindings for ORBit
-- CORBA-ORBit (http://people.redhat.com/~otaylor/corba/orbit.html) --
to the librep Lisp system (http://librep.sourceforge.net/).

The port is currently synchronized with CORBA-ORBit 0.3.0.

It requires recent versions of librep (0.11+) and ORBit (0.5.0+)


Mapping
=======

Interfaces (objects) are represented by closures, calling the closure
with the name of an operation or attribute invokes that method. When
invoking operations, any further parameters are passed to the
operation. `Inout' and `out' parameters should be enclosed in a
singleton list, providing the required indirection. Invoke attributes
with a single parameter to set their value.

Sequence -> LIST

Array -> VECTOR

Union -> (DISCRIMINATOR . VALUE)

Struct -> ((FIELD-NAME . VALUE) ... )

Fixed -> DIGIT-STRING			[ wrong, should include tc->digits ]

Enum -> SYMBOL

Exception -> ((FIELD-NAME . VALUE) ... )

	exceptions can be caught using condition-case, they will have
	tag `corba', with data (PKG-NAME . Exception)  

Any -> (TypeCode . VALUE)

TypeCode -> Object

Object -> FUN

	(FUN 'OPERATION ARGS...) -> RESULT

	(FUN '_get_ATTRIBUTE) -> VALUE

	(FUN '_set_ATTRIBUTE VALUE)

	implicit methods:

		_get_repoid -> STRING

		_get_interface -> Object

		is_a REPO-ID -> BOOL

		is_equivalent OTHER -> BOOL

		non_existent -> BOOL		[unimplemented by ORBit]

float, double, long double -> PRINTED-STRING	[marshals from ints as well]


`inout' or `out' parameters are indirected through a containing cons
cell

Constants are mapped to constant variables with names INTERFACE::NAME


ORB interface
=============

The ORB is represented by a closure stored in the variable `corba-orb'.
Call it as a normal Object (method as first argument, args as rest).
Supported methods include:

	object_to_string Object -> IOR-STRING

	string_to_object IOR-STRING -> Object

	resolve_initial_references STRING -> Object

	load_idl_file FILENAME -> BOOL

	preload ID-STRING -> BOOL


POA interface
=============

Get a POA by calling (corba-orb 'resolve_initial_references "RootPOA"),
it's an object supporting the following methods:

	_get_the_name -> STRING

	_get_the_parent -> Object

	_get_the_POAManager -> Object

	create_POA [unimplemented]

	destroy

	activate_object SERVANT -> OBJECT-ID

	activate_object_with_id OBJECT-ID SERVANT

	deactivate_object OBJECT-ID

	create_reference STRING -> Object

	create_reference_with_id OBJECT-ID STRING -> Object

	servant_to_id SERVANT -> OBJECT-ID

	servant_to_reference SERVANT -> Object

	reference_to_servant Object -> SERVANT

	reference_to_id Object -> OBJECT-ID

	id_to_servant OBJECT-ID -> SERVANT

	servant_to_id SERVANT -> OBJECT-ID


The POAManager supports the following methods:

	activate

	hold_requests WAIT-FOR-COMPLETION

	discard_requests WAIT-FOR-COMPLETION

	deactivate ETHEREALIZE-OBJECTS WAIT-FOR-COMPLETION


Miscellaneous Functions
=======================

	corba-object-p ARG -> BOOL

	corba-servant-p ARG -> BOOL

	corba-servant-new PKG-NAME IMPL-FUNCTION -> SERVANT

	    IMPL-FUNCTION is a function called as (OPERATION ARGS...)
	    to service requests. Arguments are passed as for outward
	    requests

	corba-servant-destroy SERVANT

	corba-typecode-new REPO-ID -> TypeCode

	corba-interface-to-id NAME -> REPO-ID

	corba-id-to-interface REPO-ID -> NAME

	corba-load-interface Object -> NAME

	corba-set-cookie COOKIE

	corba-check-cookies BOOL

	corba-user-exception PKG-NAME VALUE

	corba-system-exception PKG-NAME MINOR COMPLETION-STATUS

	corba-struct-new REPO-ID -> STRUCT

	corba-struct-get STRUCT FIELD -> VALUE

	corba-struct-set STRUCT FIELD VALUE
	
License
=======

This work is Copyright Owen Taylor, 1998-1999, and licensed under the
terms of the GNU Library General Public License (LGPL) See the included
file LICENSE-LGPL for details.

Parts are Copyright John Harper, 2000, also under the terms of the GNU
Library General Public License (LGPL)