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Date: 14 Jan 92 21:39:18 GMT
From: taurus!aldebaran!schweige@lll-winken.llnl.gov  (Jeffrey M. Schweiger)
Subject: Re: Ada statement
Message-ID: <3848@aldebaran.cs.nps.navy.mil>
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

In article <1992Jan14.031331.18320@cs.rose-hulman.edu> eigenstr@zoe.cs.rose-hul
man.edu (Todd R. Eigenschink) writes:
|I'm taking CS404 here, the compilers class, and this quarter, we're
|compiling a subset of Ada (We're using the book _Crafting_A_Compiler_ by
|Charles Fischer and Richard LeBlanc, Jr., should anyone care.).  I used
|Ada for two data structures classes last year, but never really thought
|about this then.  And now...the $64,000 question....
|
|	Why the HELL is there the NULL statement?????????????
|
|There's only one use as far as I can tell...to fill an empty procedure/
|function declaration so that the body isn't empty.  So why not just allow
|an empty body?

The 'null' statement exists because the syntax demands that there be a
statement at a particular place in a program (and not just restricted to
function and procedure bodies), but is used if there is nothing to be done
at this point.  It should be noted the C also uses the null statement (";"), 
see K&R, 2nd edition, page 18).


|It's not like this is a big deal...compiling that is a piece of cake.  Here's
|the code from my semantic routine to compile said statement:
|
|void null_statement(void)
|{
|   smPopStack(TOSS);   /* Remove the semicolon from the semantic stack
|                          and heave it. */
|   smPopStack(TOSS);   /* Remove the NULL from the ss and do the same. */
|}
|
|Hey, don't get on my case just 'cuz I'm writing it in C...I think Ada's
|tolerable, and I love generic packages, but I just find it a little too
|restrictive for someone who knows what HE's doing (so shoot me for
|being politically incorrect) and wants to get something done NOW.

So tell me, what can't you do in Ada that you can do in C (not necessarily
by the same method, and with the same ease)?  I'm not saying that one language
might not be better than another for specific applications, but I felt your
comment merited some response.  I don't view it as a case of 'political
correctness.'  Ada compilers have been written in Ada.

[deleted]

|Todd Eigenschink
|eigenstr@CS.Rose-Hulman.Edu


Jeff Schweiger

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