Pure CORBA

Overview of Value Semantics

A value type combines the characteristics of an IDL struct and an IDL interface. A regular value can declare state members (displaying struct-like character) and operations and attributes (displaying interface-like character). For example, an AccountVal type could be declared as a regular value, as shown in Listing 11.1.

Listing 11.1. An AccountVal Type Declared as a Regular Value

//IDL valuetype AccountVal { // state members public long m_account_id; public string m_owner; private long m_balance; // operations boolean withdraw(in long amount); void pay_in(in long amount); };

The AccountVal value type could represent a cached database record in a server. The state members of AccountVal—that is, m_account_id, m_owner ...