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From: "Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Text_IO, was: Re: Something I don't understand
Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2014 09:40:05 +0100
Organization: cbb software GmbH
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Date: 2014-02-18T09:40:05+01:00
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On Tue, 18 Feb 2014 09:14:26 +0200, Niklas Holsti wrote:

> There should really be a type "Text" that represents text, with all its
> complications of encoding, formatting, styles, fonts, lines, paragraphs,
> tabulation, indentation, language, ... True, that is horribly complex,
> but that's reality now. It is debatable if this should be in the
> language, or in toolkits (GUI or others). Probably some core part of it
> should be in the language and the rest in a toolkit or in an optional
> Annex to the language.

You cannot have that type because texts are formatted differently depending
on the medium. Different mediums deploy integrated mechanisms of
formatting. E.g. paging is postponed until rendering if the medium is HTML.
Alignment with proportional fonts is not about fields and decimal places,
etc.

In 80's there were only typewriter's text medium which is why Text_IO looks
as it does. Today there is no way to handle it as single monolithic chunk.
The way to A) modularize it, B) keep it at the library level, is a better
type system. No hacks will really help, IMO.

-- 
Regards,
Dmitry A. Kazakov
http://www.dmitry-kazakov.de