Re: The "()" operator revisited.

["Randy Brukardt" <randy@rrsoftware.com>]

"Frank J. Lhota" <NOSPAM.lhota.adarose@verizon.net> wrote in message
news:MfVMb.11867$Qq.262@nwrdny01.gnilink.net...
>...It would be nice if we could define "()" and "():=" for this hash
> table so that we could write something like this:
>
>     declare
>        Rec : Employee_Record_Hash_Table;
>     begin
>        ...
>        Rec( "Johnson" ) := This_Rec;
>        Display( The_Rec => Rec( "Smith" ) );
>        ...
>     end;

This seems like a lot of work to eliminate a few characters. I contend that
virtually all ADTs ought to be controlled (meaning that their tagged).
Presuming that, you can use prefix notation in Ada 200Y (see AI-252). Thus,
if you have:
    function Element (Container : in Map_Type; Index : in Index_Type) return
Element_Type;
    type Element_Handle is access all Element;
    function Set (Container : in Map_Type; Index : in Index_Type) return
Element_Handle;
your example would look like:
     declare
        Rec : Employee_Record_Hash_Table;
     begin
        ...
        Rec.Set( "Johnson" ).all := This_Rec;
        Display( The_Rec => Rec.Element( "Smith" ) );
        ...
     end;

Not perfect, but quite a bit closer than we can get in Ada 95. (Of course,
if you chose short enough names, you can cut the characters used a lot
more...)

               Randy.