From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.8 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_DATE autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,4bd960829a3eda10 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 1994-09-13 13:14:57 PST Path: bga.com!news.sprintlink.net!redstone.interpath.net!ddsw1!panix!MathWorks.Com!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!howland.reston.ans.net!darwin.sura.net!gwu.edu!gwu.edu!not-for-mail From: mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman) Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Ada9X Features Date: 13 Sep 1994 12:08:54 -0400 Organization: George Washington University Message-ID: <354iqm$1r4@felix.seas.gwu.edu> References: <9408127793.AA779382777@smtpgw.fnoc.navy.mil> NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.164.9.3 Date: 1994-09-13T12:08:54-04:00 List-Id: In article <9408127793.AA779382777@smtpgw.fnoc.navy.mil>, Michael Hagerty wrote: >On Sun, 11 Sep 1994, Michael Feldman wrote: > >MF> This discussion of "creeping featurism" in Ada 9X points up just > > how difficult a consensus process is. Everyone says "this language > > is getting too big; we don't need all this junk; leave _my_ > > favorite stuff in, please." > >Much, much, much horse trading goes on in building a consensus on a >standards committee. I recall one instance on the Pascal committee >where, in order to get the set extensions I so dearly wanted, I went >along with adding complex numbers... Even then, set complement was >whacked way down when the rest of the committee guessed what was >required in generating the complement of the null set! Shucks... Good anecdote. I was not on the Pascal committee but followed some of the discussions. I recall that the standard-making process stalled for some time on the issue of "conformant array parameters", a seemingly obvious idea in which array parameters to subprograms conform to the bounds of the actual parameter (sort of a half-way "unconstrained array type paramter" to use Ada's terms). This seemed natural to many, especially since Fortran had it for years. After all that, there are _two_ Pascal standards, one adopted by ISO which includes conformant array parameters, and one adopted by ANSI, which is the ISO one _minus_ conformant array parameters. The story going around was that the US compiler vendors kept it out of the US standard. And Pascal is a pretty simple language.:-) Mike Feldman ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Michael B. Feldman - chair, SIGAda Education Working Group Professor, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science The George Washington University - Washington, DC 20052 USA 202-994-5919 (voice) - 202-994-0227 (fax) - mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Internet) NOTE NEW PHONE NUMBER. "Pork is all that stuff the government gives the other guys." ------------------------------------------------------------------------