[COAS-List] recursive definition in struct

[Larry Hamel <larryh@medgrid.philips.com>]

Tim,

>I'm not sure the ObservationData struct can contain the 'composite'
>sequence of ObservationData.  I could be wrong here but as I recall valid
>sequences have to be defined via typedefs and then used.  Some translators
>may allow this but I don't think all will.  Maybe this has changed but I
>think use to try this once and couldn't.  


hmm, the current IDL compiles using VBJ 3.x.  i haven't tried with Orbix or
checked the spec on recursion.  can somebody with Orbix see if it compiles?
 anybody know where in the basic CORBA spec this might be allowed or
disallowed?

>The ramifications for this (assuming I am correct) is that you can not have
>recursive structs.  In order to make it so you can create recursive structs
>at runtime I have always put an "any" type into the struct.  I know of
>other people that have used the same technique.
>

i guess we can do this as a workaround, if it is necessary.

larry