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From: "Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Formatted IO - Fortran style or similar.
Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2012 09:17:39 +0200
Organization: cbb software GmbH
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Date: 2012-07-31T09:17:39+02:00
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On Mon, 30 Jul 2012 23:12:28 +0100, Mark Murray wrote:

> The syntax isn't all that important; its the fine-grained method of
> specifying output with a format + list_of_variables.

Which is the weak point of the method. Typically, when formatting output or
doing parsing, some of the parameters like field size, fill character,
alignment, precision, base etc are dynamic.

In fact my Ada string editing library is a port of a FORTRAN library I
designed in 80's, because FORTRAN formats were unusable. I remember
hacking the Hollerith Format Strings I asked myself why were I doing this.
For the same reason I ported parts of the my Ada library to C++, because
sscanf/sprintf are so uncomfortable to use.

-- 
Regards,
Dmitry A. Kazakov
http://www.dmitry-kazakov.de