Re: exiting a bloc

[Ted Dennison <dennison@telepath.com>]

Richard Riehle wrote:

> Robert Dewar wrote:
>
> This raises another interesting question regarding Ada design style.   I
> know of one manager
> with responsibility for embedded Ada software who prohibits declare
> blocks in the code.
> In his mind, a declare block is an ad hoc construct that demonstrates
> insufficient attention
> to the overall design.  In particular, when one is tempted to code a
> declare block, he insists
> it be promoted to a nested procedure accompanied, if necessary, by a
> pragma Inline.

I know I pretty much follow that rule myself. But I'm not sure I'd like to
see it elevated to Law. I do occasionaly like to use "declare" for sizing
arrays (particularly strings) dynamicly on the stack. I think I've also used
them in the "accept" alternatives of server tasks or in branches of large
command-processing case statements to declare local variables that are
unique to that alternative.

About the only other reason I ever use a declare is to declare local
variables that are used in the exception code of a block's exception
handler. It'd be a bit excessive to create a new routine just because the
exception handler needs a variable. It makes sense to limit the variable's
scope to the block, since that's the only place its used and the block is
already there.

--
T.E.D.

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