When a string is used to specify a table,
it is usually the name of an external resource (file or URL)
containing a byte stream.
However, STIL also provides a pluggable interface for
referencing tables that do not originate from a byte scheme.
This is done using the TableScheme
interface, either directly, or via a
StarTableFactory that maintains a list of registered schemes.
The form of a scheme specification is:
:<scheme-name>:<scheme-specific-part>where
<scheme-name> is a registered scheme name or
the classname of a class that implements TableScheme
and has a no-arg constructor.
So for instance
StarTable rows10 = new StarTableFactory().makeStarTable( ":loop:10" );creates a 10-row single-column table, as described by the loop scheme documentation below.
The following subsections describe the schemes provided with STIL.
Others can be implemented and installed into the StarTableFactory
using the
addScheme method,
or at runtime using the
startable.schemes system property.