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From: "Adam Beneschan" <adam@irvine.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Use of declare blocks
Date: 21 Mar 2007 18:06:12 -0700
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Date: 2007-03-21T18:06:12-07:00
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On Mar 21, 1:25 pm, "Randy Brukardt" <r...@rrsoftware.com> wrote:
> <adawo...@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
>
> news:4eeMh.16400$bb1.2557@newssvr17.news.prodigy.net...
> ...
>
> >Units
> > in Ada, including declare blocks (which ought to be used minimally)
> > have the option of being named.
>
> While I generally agree with Richard, I certainly don't agree on the "ought
> to be used minimally" here.
>
> I use declare blocks extensively to reduce the scope of temporary variables
> in subprograms. They're especially important when the object exists just to
> take an unused out parameter, because they greatly reduce the need to come
> up with names for the objects. I often have code like:
>
>     declare
>             Junk : Index;
>     begin
>             Insert_Something (..., Result => Junk);
>     end;
>
> where the result isn't needed by the following code.

The thing I don't like about this is that it breaks up the algorithm.
If you have a sequence of statements that implements some sort of
algorithm, or a sequence of steps for getting what you want, I'd
prefer to have all the statements together instead of being
interrupted by lines with just keywords or declarations that I don't
care about and that don't add to my understanding of the program.
Having to skip over that stuff is harder on my eyes.  But this is IMHO
strictly a matter of personal preference and taste; there's certainly
nothing wrong with your style and you have good reasons for it.

                              -- Adam