Hello Neil!

Replying to a message of Neil Heller to Darin McBride:

 DM>> The trick was to know which was which, 
 DM>> and transform them if required to the current platform.

 NH> So if you were writing third party software, you would need to know 
 NH> details about both sides of the transaction - and hope that the 
 NH> information you've been given is correct.  That sounds to me like 
 NH> walking across a frozen pond while carrying blocks of cement.

If you don't control the other side, it's a little more painful, but a bit
of trial&error can solve this easily enough.

 DM>> Much like what Java does internally.  Serialise a java 
 DM>> object, and you always get the same orientation (can't 
 DM>> recall which).  Read it back on a different platform, and 
 DM>> the interpreter will automagically rearrange if required.

 NH> If you're reading a relational database on a mainframe, will Java 
 NH> correctly make adjustments for numeric types?

No - the database client (JDBC driver) is responsible for this.  At least,
that's how it works with DB2.

Darin
C_PLUSPLUS moderator
dmcbride{at}tower.to.org

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