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Date: 13 Oct 92 12:07:15 GMT
From: cis.ohio-state.edu!news.sei.cmu.edu!firth@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU  (Robert Fi
rth)
Subject: Re: Can I overload ":="?
Message-ID: <1992Oct13.120715.7253@sei.cmu.edu>
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

In article <1992Oct12.194719.27071@fcom.cc.utah.edu> val@news.ccutah.edu (Val K
artchner) writes:

>I would like to define what happens when I assign a value of one type (say
>complex) to a variable of another type (say real).  Can I change what is
>meant in Ada by the operation ":=" like I can do with the other operators,
>or am I stuck with assignment of a type to a variable of that type?

The direct answer is you can't do it: assignment works only between a
value and a variable of the same type, and you can't redefine or
overload the ":=" operation.

The indirect answer is that you can define a type transfer function
as anything you please, eg

	function Convert (x:Chipmunk) return Integer;

and then say

	line_length := Convert(Dale);

And, of course, you can overload Convert on any parameter and result type,
so need choose only one name for all type conversion functions.  Jean
Ichbiah's suggestion (with which I do not agree!) is that you use the
unary "+" operator for type conversion.