Re: Ada Decimal Arithmetic & Representations (ADAR) V1.0 available

[kst@telesoft.com (Keith Thompson @pulsar)]

In article <1993Mar22.095301.806@enpc.fr> re@hades.NoSubdomain.NoDomain (Rolf EBERT) writes:
> I tried the package with the Alsys compiler (V5.5.1) on a SPARC station
> and had no difficulties to compile it. The only problem was a
> shortcoming of the Alsys compiler that defines no Long_Integer.
> Context-fiffs are applied at the end.

Ahem.  Actually, it's a shortcoming of the package that it depends
on Long_Integer.  The language definition allows but does not require
Long_Integer and/or Short_Integer to be defined in Standard, and does
not define their sizes or ranges.  Portable software should not use
these types directly; instead, it should define its own integer types
with whatever ranges are appropriate.  For that matter, portable software
should be very careful about using type Integer; it's guaranteed to exist,
but its range will vary from one host/target/implementation to another.

If you want the longest possible integer type (whatever its name
happens to be in Standard), use something like this:

   type Longest_Integer is range System.Min_Int .. System.Max_Int;
-- 
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith)  kst@telesoft.com
TeleSoft^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H Alsys, Inc.
5959 Cornerstone Court West, San Diego, CA, USA, 92121-9891
"Listen to me, people!  We must stick them with quills -- it's the only way!"