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From: kilgallen@eisner.decus.org (Larry Kilgallen)
Subject: Re: Question about base types
Date: 1997/02/10
Date: 1997-02-10T00:00:00+00:00	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <1997Feb10.073526.1@eisner> (raw)
In-Reply-To: mheaney-ya023680000902970112050001@news.ni.net


In article <mheaney-ya023680000902970112050001@news.ni.net>, mheaney@ni.net (Matthew Heaney) writes:
> In article <dewar.855461358@merv>, dewar@merv.cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar) wrote:
> 
>>Yes, it is true that Ada 83 was a little confused in this area, but the
>>terminology chosen in Ada 95 is fundamentally confusing, and in fact I
>>note a couple of error messages in GNAT that are absolutely correct
>>but which always cause people trouble:
>>
>>   package x is .... -- oops forgot this hid "type" x 
>>
>>      q : x;
>>          |
>>     Error: subtype name expected
>>
>>Almost all programmers react to this message thinking, "why do I need a
>>subtype here, a type should be good enough"
> 
> Then we have to teach them that "types" don't have a name, only subtypes do.

And that is a shame, with regard popularization of Ada.

I am not claiming there is any better technical solution, but all who
encounter any situation where Ada is confusing to those experienced
in multiple other programming languages should realize that such a
situation is undesireable.

Larry Kilgallen




  parent reply	other threads:[~1997-02-10  0:00 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 26+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
1997-01-26  0:00 Question about base types Matthew Heaney
1997-01-27  0:00 ` Mats Weber
1997-01-28  0:00   ` Robert A Duff
1997-01-29  0:00   ` Robert Dewar
1997-01-27  0:00 ` Robert A Duff
1997-01-30  0:00   ` Matthew Heaney
1997-01-30  0:00     ` Matthew Heaney
1997-01-30  0:00     ` Robert Dewar
1997-01-30  0:00       ` Matthew Heaney
     [not found]     ` <EACHUS.97Feb3221558@spectre.mitre.org>
     [not found]       ` <dewar.855063927@merv>
     [not found]         ` <EACHUS.97Feb6145918@spectre.mitre.org>
     [not found]           ` <dewar.855276722@merv>
1997-02-07  0:00             ` Mats Weber
1997-02-08  0:00               ` Robert Dewar
1997-02-10  0:00                 ` Mats Weber
1997-02-11  0:00                   ` Robert Dewar
     [not found]         ` <32FB45D4.2160@watson.ibm.com>
1997-02-10  0:00           ` Robert Dewar
1997-02-08  0:00   ` Robert Dewar
1997-02-09  0:00     ` Matthew Heaney
1997-02-09  0:00       ` Robert Dewar
1997-02-09  0:00         ` Matthew Heaney
1997-02-10  0:00           ` Robert Dewar
1997-02-10  0:00       ` Larry Kilgallen [this message]
1997-02-11  0:00   ` Robert I. Eachus
1997-02-12  0:00     ` Robert Dewar
1997-01-28  0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus
1997-01-28  0:00   ` Mats Weber
1997-01-29  0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus
1997-01-30  0:00   ` Robert A Duff
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