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=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,eda0a7cd6069ee4 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: "Stanley R. Allen" Subject: Re: Type mess in Ada standard library Date: 1999/07/23 Message-ID: <3798909F.6C5E7730@hso.link.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 504441942 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit References: <7n1uu4$so8$1@pegasus.csx.cam.ac.uk> <7n32tt$cio$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <7n41v3$j6$1@pegasus.csx.cam.ac.uk> <7n5cp9$89b$1@nnrp1.deja.com> X-Accept-Language: en Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Organization: NASA, Kennedy Space Center Mime-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 1999-07-23T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Robert Dewar wrote: > > In article <7n41v3$j6$1@pegasus.csx.cam.ac.uk>, > mgk25@cl.cam.ac.uk (Markus Kuhn) wrote: > > > Would it at the same time also be possible to add anonymous > > arrays? > > > > typ'Array(0..255,0..255) -- anonymous 64k 2D array of typ > > typ'Array(<>,<>,<>) -- any 3D array of typ > > In fact it is *exactly* this question that makes me think that > it is a bad idea to introduce the anonymous access type. If > people simply think of this as a way to weaken typing (as in > the above array proposal), rather than as a way to solve a > particular problem in genericity at the interfacing level, I > am afraid that such features can do more harm than good. > History repeats itself. I remember when the revision process started for Ada 9X, at the beginning there were a great many language proposals which effectively ignored Ada's basic foundational concepts. There were articles in Ada Letters that shocked me, the suggestions were so wild. On the old INFO-ADA list (twin sister to CLA) there was always someone popping off with an impromptu language change. I was relieved when I went to a WAdaS conference around that time and heard a panel of authorities involved in the Ada 9X process. One panelist made reference to these kinds of suggestions by making an analogy: that the suggestions he had heard reminded him of a group of people walking through a cathedral and discussing modifications, and they come upon one of the supporting pillars of the structure. One of them says "This pillar is sort of inconveniently placed -- let's move it to a different part of the cathedral". -- Stanley Allen mailto:s_allen@hso.link.com P.S Does anyone know how to get access to the archives of the old INFO-ADA list?