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: 103376,8b8748382fcfacc1 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: "Stanley R. Allen" Subject: Re: friend classes in ada95 Date: 2000/04/18 Message-ID: <38FCE9A3.32536A70@raytheon.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 612898646 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit References: 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: 2000-04-18T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: David Botton wrote: > > Of course, I can already do interface MI in Ada already, so this is really > just about syntax. I am not happy that Ada comes out looking bad in OO > circles, since most people can not bridge the gap from "class X" to "type X > is tagged", even though there is none. > If they can't bridge this gap, it may be because prejudice is in the way. If that's not the problem, then the barrier may be that they are attempting to make a direct leap from the C++ (or Java) model to Ada 95. It's a common mistake C++ people make when learning Java, and we've seen more than a few questions here on c.l.a reflecting that kind of confusion. I like the approach N. Cohen uses in the second edition of "Ada as a Second Language" to present the topic -- building up a complete picture of the Ada model based on a discussion of derived types, leaving comparisons to other languages until the end. -- Stanley Allen mailto:Stanley_R_Allen-NR@raytheon.com P.S. I'm still waiting for a good, thorough book focused on advanced OO programming in Ada 95. The general Ada textbooks are mostly for beginners. The discussions in the Rationale are a good starting point, but obviously every aspect of the topic could not be discussed in the space provided there. Matthew Heaney's patterns articles contain many of the things one would like to see in an "OO techniques for Ada 95" book.