Method chaining for model package

[Rijk van Haaften]

Hi all,

Using the package org.apache.ddlutils.model a few questions came to my
mind. The classes (i.e. Database, Table, Column) follow the JavaBean
structure (setters, getters, no-argument-constructor). That's quite
ok, but it has its consequences:

1. new Column() is possible but is an inconsistent object possibly
(actually seen) causing (NullPointer)Exceptions in the library. How
about adding more constructors, like Column(String name)?
2. The following
            Column c;
            Table t = new Table();
            t.setName("Meta");
            c = new Column();
            c.setName("type");
            c.setType(TypeMap.VARCHAR);
            c.setPrimaryKey(true);
            c.setSize("2048");
            t.addColumn(c);
            c = new Column();
            c.setName("super");
            c.setType(TypeMap.VARCHAR);
            c.setSize("2048");
            t.addColumn(c);
could be made more readible:
Table t =
    new Table();
        .setName("Meta");
        .addColumn( new Column()
            c.setName("type")
            c.setType(TypeMap.VARCHAR)
            c.setSize("2048")
            c.setPrimaryKey(true)
        )
        .addColumn( new Column()
            .setName("super")
            .setType(TypeMap.VARCHAR)
            .setSize("2048")
        )
if Invocation Chaining is introduced, though I would prefer
Table t =
    new Table
        ( "Meta"
        , new Column("type", TypeMap.VARCHAR, 2048, true)
        , new Column("super", TypeMap.VARCHAR, 2048)
        )
using point 1 above with varargs: Table(String name, Column... columns)

What do you think about these?

Rijk J.C. van Haaften