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,fa2cc518ef3b992c
X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public
From: "Robert I. Eachus" <rieachus@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: scripting/extension language for Ada (we have an opportunity
 here)
Date: 2000/02/13
Message-ID: <38A6F3D6.2D9C7296@earthlink.net>#1/1
X-Deja-AN: 585400982
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
References: <s90mu0hg7q538@corp.supernews.com>
 <389207CC.C16D80E8@averstar.com> <38971028.BB16D8A2@earthlink.net>
 <QyEl4.3727$Zd7.76187@newsread1.prod.itd.earthlink.net>
 <Pine.BSF.4.21.0002010958400.9470-100000@shell5.ba.best.com>
 <3899F757.FAE131B3@free.fr>
 <Pine.A41.3.96-heb-2.07.1000205145911.104554A-100000@pluto.mscc.huji.ac.il>
 <389D43A6.786C7B79@free.fr> <wcc4sborclg.fsf@world.std.com>
 <Ogvo4.774$Qn4.18873@cmnws01.we.mediaone.net> <u1z6kivuq.fsf@infomatch.com>
 <880gpk$fv04@ftp.kvaerner.com> <38A47E5A.42406034@earthlink.net>
 <RQ4p4.181$m35.8573@typhoon.we.mediaone.net>
X-Accept-Language: en,pdf
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
X-ELN-Date: Sun Feb 13 10:07:28 2000
X-Complaints-To: abuse@earthlink.net
X-Trace: newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net 950465248 63.24.60.125 (Sun,
 13 Feb 2000 10:07:28 PST)
Organization: The MITRE Corporation
MIME-Version: 1.0
NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2000 10:07:28 PST
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Date: 2000-02-13T00:00:00+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

Pascal Martin wrote:
 
> Simple to use list management. This is critical to scripts, where you often end
> processing list of files or other ressources.

   Yep, simplifying iteration over lists of files, names, and other
objects would be necessary.  But I think we need to "special case" the
first two in the same way that Unbounded_Strings are specialized.  I was
assuming that specialized ADTs would be available for these.  For
example you would want a function which takes a path and a regular
expression as arguments, and returns a list of files rooted at that path
which match the regular expression...

   But what is really needed is an apply operation.  And this is one of
those things where you are tempted to work around it, until you realize
how easy it is to write an apply in Ada 95. Try it!  You will never use
another iterator in Ada again...