Data_type in AttributeConfig is not AttributeDataType

General Development
1

Hi all,

I have a question regarding data_type field in AttributeConfig_{5.3.2,} structures.

According to the IDL (TANGO Control System / Code / [r31959] /idl/tags/Release_9/tango.idl),
it is defined as a long-type:


struct AttributeConfig_5
{
// ...
    long data_type;
// ...
};

This is reflected in generated code (e.g. AttributeConfig_5):
http://www.esrf.eu/computing/cs/tango/tango_doc/kernel_doc/tango_java_api/fr/esrf/Tango/AttributeConfig_5.html#data_type

and propagates to the TangoApi classes (AttributeInfo):
http://www.esrf.eu/computing/cs/tango/tango_doc/kernel_doc/tango_java_api/fr/esrf/TangoApi/AttributeInfo.html#data_type

However, IDL defines this enum:


enum AttributeDataType
{
    ATT_BOOL,
// ...
};

I believe that AttributeDataType should be the type of the data_type field.

My question is: why is long used here?
Can it take some other value, not covered by AttributeDataType?
May I assume that it can always be safely converted into AttributeDataType?

Thanks,
Michal