Re: Inc (was: Real data for a change in the assignment operators and Bounded_String discussions. )

[Gautier Write-only <gautier@somewhere.nil>]

> >I don't expect this to end the discussion on these two issues, but I
> >hope it helps.  The three calls in a row to Inc are much clearer than:
> >
> >       Total := Total + 1;
> >       Single(Data(I)) := Single(Data(I)) + 1;
> >       Digraphs(Previous,Data(I))) := Digraphs(Previous,Data(I)) + 1;

Alexander Kopilovitch:

> I think Pascal language was aware of that even before Ada emerged.

You certainly think to Borland Pascal. Yes, it was a good idea from them.
(Standard) Pascal has only "Succ" and "Pred".

Applied to different contexts, both the "Inc" and the "idem" ideas would be
useful for making programs readable and catch errors. In the example
above, "Inc" is obviously the best.

For "Inc", why not let the programmer define the procedure, the standard
ensuring an "Intrinsic" pragma like for the Shift_Right function ?
A set of "Inc", "Dec" (all scalar or floating types),
"Add", "Sub", "Mul", "Div" (all numeric) would be nice.
________________________________________________________
Gautier  --  http://www.mysunrise.ch/users/gdm/gsoft.htm

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