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From: "Nick Roberts" <Nick.Roberts@dial.pipex.com>
Subject: Re: renaming Interfaces.Java.Ada_To_Java_String to the + operator
Date: 1998/01/11
Date: 1998-01-11T00:00:00+00:00	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <01bd1ebc$3bb2cb20$20f382c1@xhv46.dial.pipex.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: 01bd1e34$1632c2c0$24326489@Westley-PC.calspan.com


I dislike this usage, in commercial programming situations, usually. The
reason is well known: that it can often be confusing (or, at least, less
obvious) for programmers new to the library environment or project. I think
it's fair to say, also, that this sort of notation can be so 'quiet' as to
be overlooked, and thus a source of mistakes (which would have been avoided
with a 'louder' notation).

Given that the only reason (tell me if I'm wrong) is to abbreviate an
identifier, essentially, I feel it is rarely justifiable. If the programmer
feels that an identifier is too long ("Ada_To_Java_String" perhaps), it can
always be renamed (or subtyped or whatever) to a shorter, but still
meaningful, identifier ("A2Jstr" possibly).

One of the real practical strengths of Ada is its lack of obscure notation.
I'm a real fan (as you can tell :-) of this clarity.

-- 

Nick Roberts
Croydon, UK

Proprietor, ThoughtWing Software; Independent Software Development
Consultant
* Nick.Roberts@dial.pipex.com * Voicemail & Fax +44 181-405 1124 *
*** Eats three shredded spams every morning for breakfast ***


Terry J. Westley <westley@calspan.com> wrote in article
<01bd1e34$1632c2c0$24326489@Westley-PC.calspan.com>...
> Does anyone know who's idea it was to rename the
> Interfaces.Java.Ada_To_Java_String function to the "+"
> operator in the Intermetrics Java bindings?  I'm
> using the Aonix ObjectAda translator but assume that
> the Java class library came from Intermetrics.
> 
> Thanks much for this clever little idea.  IMHO, it
> really improves ease of use and code readability. 
> 
> Does this idea originate with the Java work at
> Intermetrics or does it predate it?
> 
> I find the inverse of + useful as well:
> 
>    function "-" (s : String_Ptr) return String
>       renames Interfaces.Java.Java_To_Ada_String;
> 
> Does anyone think this is a misuse of operator
> overloading?
> 
> -- 
> Terry J. Westley, Principal Engineer
> Calspan SRL Corp, P.O. Box 400, Buffalo, NY 14225
> westley@calspan.com   http://www.calspan.com/





  parent reply	other threads:[~1998-01-11  0:00 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 40+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
1998-01-11  0:00 renaming Interfaces.Java.Ada_To_Java_String to the + operator Terry J. Westley
1998-01-10  0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1998-01-10  0:00   ` Matthew Heaney
1998-01-13  0:00     ` Tom Moran
1998-01-13  0:00       ` Stephen Leake
1998-01-13  0:00         ` Nick Roberts
1998-01-13  0:00       ` Stephen Leake
1998-01-13  0:00       ` Robert Dewar
     [not found]       ` <En3Cxz.7HD@world.std.com>
1998-01-20  0:00         ` Robert Dewar
1998-01-21  0:00           ` Stephen Leake
1998-01-22  0:00           ` Robert Dewar
1998-01-22  0:00             ` Anonymous
     [not found]               ` <dewar.885498969@merv>
1998-01-23  0:00                 ` Tom Moran
1998-01-23  0:00                 ` Geert Bosch
1998-01-23  0:00             ` Anonymous
1998-01-24  0:00             ` Tucker Taft
1998-01-11  0:00   ` Chris Morgan
1998-01-11  0:00     ` Robert Dewar
1998-01-11  0:00       ` Chris Morgan
1998-01-11  0:00         ` Robert Dewar
1998-01-11  0:00           ` Chris Morgan
1998-01-11  0:00             ` Robert Dewar
1998-01-11  0:00 ` Nick Roberts [this message]
1998-01-11  0:00   ` Brian Rogoff
1998-01-13  0:00     ` Terry J. Westley
1998-01-14  0:00       ` Robert Dewar
1998-01-15  0:00         ` Nick Roberts
1998-01-15  0:00           ` Robert Dewar
1998-01-16  0:00           ` Michael F Brenner
1998-01-16  0:00             ` Nick Roberts
1998-01-16  0:00               ` Robert Dewar
1998-01-17  0:00                 ` miniscences Nick Roberts
1998-01-17  0:00                   ` miniscences Robert Dewar
1998-01-19  0:00                 ` renaming Interfaces.Java.Ada_To_Java_String to the + operator Anonymous
1998-01-25  0:00                   ` Matthew Heaney
1998-01-16  0:00             ` Robert Dewar
1998-01-11  0:00   ` Robert Dewar
1998-01-14  0:00     ` Anonymous
1998-01-14  0:00       ` Robert Dewar
1998-01-12  0:00 ` Tucker Taft
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