From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,81bb2ce65a3240c3 X-Google-NewGroupId: yes X-Google-Attributes: gida07f3367d7,domainid0,public,usenet X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Received: by 10.68.197.193 with SMTP id iw1mr9502144pbc.0.1335541644289; Fri, 27 Apr 2012 08:47:24 -0700 (PDT) Path: r9ni104873pbh.0!nntp.google.com!news1.google.com!postnews.google.com!glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail From: Adam Beneschan Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: What would you like in Ada202X? Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2012 08:33:41 -0700 (PDT) Organization: http://groups.google.com Message-ID: <17931036.246.1335540821755.JavaMail.geo-discussion-forums@ynee1> References: <3637793.35.1335340026327.JavaMail.geo-discussion-forums@ynfi5> <4f97bf40$0$6559$9b4e6d93@newsspool4.arcor-online.net> <8762clbozl.fsf@adaheads.sparre-andersen.dk> NNTP-Posting-Host: 66.126.103.122 Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Trace: posting.google.com 1335541644 18876 127.0.0.1 (27 Apr 2012 15:47:24 GMT) X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2012 15:47:24 +0000 (UTC) In-Reply-To: <8762clbozl.fsf@adaheads.sparre-andersen.dk> Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com; posting-host=66.126.103.122; posting-account=duW0ogkAAABjRdnxgLGXDfna0Gc6XqmQ User-Agent: G2/1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Date: 2012-04-27T08:33:41-07:00 List-Id: On Friday, April 27, 2012 12:41:50 AM UTC-7, Jacob Sparre Andersen wrote: > Georg Bauhaus wrote: >=20 > > 0) Which features do you think can be dropped from Ada? >=20 > I would like to drop (most of) the predefined numerical types from > package Standard. We have to keep Duration, but are any of the other > numerical types in Standard really required by the language? (Natural > and Integer'Base are used in the declaration of "**". Is there a > sensible way around that?) They're also used for String types and in lots of places in predefined pack= ages. > And the rationale: I believe that avoiding predefined types will limit > the temptation to use the same type (or two types) for all numerical > objects. No, it won't. If you took the predefined types out of the language, progra= mmers would just define their own types in a "common types" package and use= those for all (or most) numerical objects. The alternative would be insan= ity. I appreciate the thinking--if programmers gave some thought to every numeri= cal object in their program, and defined their numerical types with appropr= iate ranges and in a way that accidental inappropriate type conversions cou= ldn't occur between two objects where the numbers have different meanings, = it would cut down on errors. But there's a point where things become too b= urdensome, and IMHO having to think about the type of every number used in= computations is past that point. Sure, in an ideal, theoretical world in = which theoretical programmers theoretically have 83 hours in a day and limi= tless theoretical mental energy, it would make sense if programmers did thi= s kind of rigorous analysis on every little piece of their programs. But w= e're trying to design a language that real people are going to use, so some= balances have to be struck. -- Adam