Table 5.1 briefly
shows the different data types that are supported
in Babel. Refer to each chapter for the language specific bindings
for each SIDL type. The ``S'' in SIDL stands for
``Scientific.'' This emphasis is reflected in the
fundametal support for complex numbers (fcomplex
and dcomplex) and dynamic multidimensional arrays
(arrayType,Dim
).
C++ developers looking at the SIDL syntax for arrays,
might think that SIDL is a templated IDL, but this
is not so. Although the syntax for SIDL arrays looks
like a template, it is specific only to the array type.
Developers cannot create templated classes or methods
in SIDL.
Discussion of the various types is broken up into sections.
Numeric types such as bool, char, int,
long, float, double, fcomplex,
and dcomplex are discussed in
SubSection 5.3.
Discussion of strings is found in
SubSection 5.3.
A brief justification for the opaque type is
in SubSection 5.3.
Information about enumerated types is presented in
SubSection 5.3 which
concludes our discussion of fundamental types and this
section. Information about extended types such as
Interfaces and Classes (Section 5.6) and
Arrays (Section follow
thereafter.