More Flexible Data Types

XML, as "the next generation ASCII", can play several roles in a distributed object system; one of the more exciting ones is as the basis for serialized data representations. This is exciting because XML-encoded data can be more self-describing than data encoded in many more traditional ways, which facilitates the kind of decentralized protocol evolution seen in Internet-scale development: XML's explicit "tagging and bagging" helps keep multiple extensions straight. However, today's common distributed object systems have type systems that are not flexible enough to describe such data. We suggest a way to make more flexible data types; this improves distributed object systems in general, and is critical to realizing XML's full potential. This approach has: (1) typing judgements based on type structure instead of type identity, (2) extensible record types with optional fields, (3) coarse record types, for which extension is compatible with subtyping, a...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1999
• Where: WETICE
• Authors: Mike Spreitzer, Andrew Begel
• Keywords: Common Distributed Object, Distributed Object, Emerging Technology, Object Systems, WETICE 1999