Re: parent package referring to child

[Georg Bauhaus <rm.tsoh+bauhaus@maps.futureapps.de>]

On Tue, 2007-10-09 at 23:23 -0700, eliben wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I have a package FOO that encapsulates a large part of the system. Now
> I need to add to it a public type (that should be visible by external
> code) with a lot of enumerated names (hundreds). I don't want to fill
> the spec of FOO with this huge type, so I thought it would be a good
> idea to create a subpackage: FOO.Names, and place the type there.

> However, declarations of subprograms in the spec of FOO must refer to
> the names from FOO.Names, and Ada 95 won't let me do that because it's
> parent referring to child.

You can replicate the type as a derived type in FOO and create
the Names package as a normal package:

  type Twin is new Names.Huge;

Another possibility is to rearrange the package hierarchy so
that FOO can become a sibling of Names.

(Sometimes I think a folding editor is a Good Thing, once
I get used to it. The same with source navigation. :)