Re: Size of CHARACTER in Ada 83

[James Squire <jsquire@mdc.com>]

Robert Dewar wrote:
> 
> "It seems to me that those who want a 256 value CHARACTER should have to
> change their code rather than me change mine, but I have this funny
> feeling the case is "moot" (with apologies to Robert Dewar or whoever
> that was that was complaining about improper usage of that word).  Is it?"
> 
> Well it is certainly not a moot issue, because it has been officially
> decided that Character will always be 256 values (by the ISO standards

I believe that is exactly what I said.  Don't you remember the argument 
about "moot" = "officially decided"?????  I was trying to tip my cap to 
you because you use the word differently (I think it was you), but to me 
and everyone I have ever known, that is what "moot" means.

> group producing the Ada 95 standard), and that it may optionally be
> 256 values in Ada 83 (by the Zandfoort meeting of WG9, affirming
> the AI you mention) [moot means arguable, undecided].

See above.

> I think the compiler writer who changed to 256 characters was doing
> the right thing. Rational in particular has I believe made this change,
> and particularly wanted to do so, since the 128 character limitation
> was a real problem for them, esp3ecially in Europe, and I think that
> Rational certainly made the right decision.

I have been informed of this by the vendor in question, and retracted my 
hard line statement about how those who want 256 characters should have 
to change.

> If you really want a 128 value character type, define it yourself
> 
>   type My_Char is new Character range Character'Val(0) .. Character'Val(127);
> 
> that will work in all versions of Ada.
> 
> But shouldn't you really change your program? Any program that restricts
> charcters to 128 values these days is obsolescent it seems to me.

You completely missed one statement in my post:  "The problem is that 
this code is generated by ALEX".  As I just told someone else privately, 
I could have figured this out all by myself.  My whole reason for posting 
was to find out if there was something I could do OTHER than manually 
modifying code that is automatically generated by a tool.
-- 
James Squire                             mailto:jsquire@mdc.com
MDA Avionics Tools & Processes
McDonnell Douglas Aerospace              http://www.mdc.com/
Opinions expressed here are my own and NOT my company's
"Commander, this little breach of security isn't going to affect my
 Christmas bonus, is it?"
	-- Garibaldi, "The Gathering"