Re: How to print Task_ID type? (GNAT SunOS)

[Greg Bond <bond@ee.ubc.ca>]

Robert Dewar wrote:
> 
> Greg asks
> 
> "Can one of the Text_IO packages be used to print a Task_ID type (or any
> access Integer type for that matter...)? I'm using GNAT under SunOS
> which defines the Task_ID type in Ada.Task_Identification as private,
> but implements it as an Integer access type. If one of the Text_IO
> packages won't work, then what will?"
> 
> Certainly not, private means private, neither you nor Text_IO can
> mess with a private type in another package. Well you culd use
> unchecked conversion after looking in the private part, but that
> would NOT be pleasant code.
> 
> What do you really need to do here? Doesn't the Image function for
> Task_Id do what you want? That's what it's for!
> 
>    function Image (T : Task_Id) return String;


Indeed it is. My oversight. This function does not handle the more 
general problem I posed though. Is there a general facility for printing 
access types? The GNAT implementation of the Image function above is a 
system level (i.e. platform dependent) routine specifically for the 
Task_ID type. The only Ada references I've got are Barnes for Ada 95 and 
the ALRM, both of which are woefully inadequate on the topic of Ada I/O.





--
* Greg Bond                         * Dept. of Electrical Eng.  
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