Re: Pass by reference

[dan.r.mcleran@seagate.com (Dan McLeran)]

> A couple of larger questions; 
> 
> Why do you care whether a type is passed by copy or reference? 

I'm just trying to get more familiar with the language. I've done
mostly C++ programming for the past several years and am looking at
alternatives.

> 
> If you are worried about time or space efficiency, specify the
> appropriate option to the compiler, and forget about it, until
> measurements of your final application show a problem.

I'm not worried about it. I just want to understand all the details
because I'll probably have to explain it to others.

> 
> Why would you want to pass a tagged type by copy?

I don't necessarily want to. I actually would never do this in C++,
unless the class was something very small and intended to be passed by
value:

struct Silly
{
   int i;
};

I'm just trying to solidify the Ada language rules in my brain.

> 
> You might want to read the Ada Rationale, and the annotated Ada
> Reference manual, on this topic. See
> http://www.adaic.com/standards/ada95.html

Thanks for the link. I can use all the help I can get.