Re: Usage of Interfaces with Ada 95

[mheaney@on2.com (Matthew Heaney)]

Simon Wright <simon@pushface.org> wrote in message news:<x7vy8w8rg9h.fsf@smaug.pushface.org>...
> Matthew Heaney <matthewjheaney@earthlink.net> writes:
> 
> > For example, all the containers and iterators in the Charles library
> > reify your iterator concept above.  So what's the problem?  That
> > library does exactly what you want, which is to iterate over the
> > elements in a container.
> 
> And so do Booch Component iterators, which are abstract, and which of
> course are much more like what all English-speaking programmers bar
> those who also speak STL understand by Iterator than the STL ones
> which Charles has adopted. I just have to get that dig in. And there
> are some on the ARG who have similar views. We shall have to see how
> it goes! Personally I have no problem at all with what the STL does,
> just some of the names it's adopted for the concepts ..

Actually, I just pulled out my copy of Software Components With Ada by
Grady Booch, which has a copyright of 1987.  His discussion of active
vs. passive iterators begins on p. 157.

The name of his active iterator type is "Iterator," declared right
there on p. 158.

So this is an old idea.  I must say I find it very odd that the
maintainer of the Booch Components is unfamiliar with the iterators
used by the Booch Components!