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Compiling Num.java 0.1x

I'm working through a preliminary understanding of what Orcmid has created here. The goal of the exercise, from my view, is to try to figure out what this Java code is, and how might I use it.

Orcmid has done a good job of describing the interface in terms that try to prevent me from making my earlier inference's of an early Java interface, numbers as we use them in the world, and int's as Java datatypes. The definition provides a name and then some examples of the syntax of using the interface methods. I'm still pretty confused about the names, except that the use of "SumO" for the name of a Java object (Basics 1.2.) make me think that this does have something to do with arithmetic.

The minimal Java code supplied to define the interface and to exercise it is useful in revealing how little information is supplied by the code. I'm able to compile the interface and stub and simple run program with only minimal futzing with classpath specification. Orcmid is running on Windows and I'm on OS X, and a bit-wise compare of Num.class reveals no difference. That's interesting, but not surprising, given the Java promise of running on different platforms.

So, I complie StubbyRun.java and run it and get the exact same output that Orcmid, and the code, specifies. Great. But I have no earthly idea what, exactly, I could do with this. The method aum() throws and exception, the method dim() returns the interface object, and the boolean returns true.

So, without more information, the code does not reveal anything about its raison d'etre. I need to know what, exactly, Orcmid has in mind here. Section 4.1, Binding Considerations offers pointers to reference material (sections 4.1.4.a and 4.1.4.b) to Peano numbering projects. In that material is some metadata needed to understand what the next version of the interface might provide.

But the key point is that code by itself isn't enough to reveal how to use it, or the reasons for its construction why it was written. That maybe is what we get to in the BETA organization description.