Re: Export instances of procedures

[Tucker Taft <stt@averstar.com>]

Gautier wrote:
> 
> Vincent Marciante wrote:
> 
> > At this point, Read_8bit_AutoInt(...) requires a completion.
> > A subprogram renaming declaration (RM 8.5.4) can act as a completion but
> > an instantiation can't.
> 
> Sorry for insisting on this question, but _why_ cannot the instance
> be considered as complete ?

This was explicitly considered during the Ada 9X design process.
The conclusion was that it might create readability problems.  An
instantiation does not repeat the formal parameter part, so
matching a potentially overloaded spec with the appropriate generic
instantiation might be difficult for the human reader.

I remember there being a rather heated discussion about this issue,
but the readability-over-writability philosophy won the day,
given the availability of using renaming as a body.

> ...
> Maybe some wise one knows them or can decipher the Runes ? ;-)

You might find a discussion in minutes of some Ada 9X design
meeting, if you were able to locate them...

> ______________________________________________________
> Gautier  --  http://members.xoom.com/gdemont/gsoft.htm

-- 
-Tucker Taft   stt@averstar.com   http://www.averstar.com/~stt/
Technical Director, Distributed IT Solutions  (www.averstar.com/tools)
AverStar (formerly Intermetrics, Inc.)   Burlington, MA  USA