Re: Java vs Ada 95

[kilgallen@eisner.decus.org (Larry Kilgallen)]

In article <96102116593631@psavax.pwfl.com>, "Marin David Condic, 407.796.8997, M/S 731-93" <condicma@PWFL.COM> writes:

>     However, there *might* be some advantage in a language standard to
>     saying something to the effect that: "If an implementation
>     provides garbage collection, then the following constraints
>     apply..." Then outline some minimal set of expected behavior as it
>     may apply to program correctness, error detection, exceptional
>     conditions or whatever else may be a concern for *language*
>     behavior. (If the garbage collection is truly invisible, except
>     for performance or space issues, then it doesn't need to be
>     specified by the language standard, eh?)

Well the issue of _knowing_ whether the compiler supports GC has been
raised, and there are probably two forms for that:

     - ability for a program to specify that gc is expected

     - ability for a running program to determine whether gc is present

Larry Kilgallen