Re: Is the Writing on the Wall for Ada?

["Robert I. Eachus" <rieachus@comcast.net>]

Dmitry A. Kazakov wrote:

> A clear deficiency is an inability to constrain [*all*] the array
> elements through a discriminant.
> 
> This in turn makes a non-generic implementation of Bounded_String less
> usable. An example of use:
> 
> type Array_Of_Bounded_Strings (Max_Length : Natural) is
>    array (...) of Bounded_String (Max_Length);
> 
> Where is any limit here?

Um, that the syntax is not legal Ada?  If you look at my recent post you 
will see that you can do something which actually creates what you want. 
  And notice that since the type Bounded_Array is totally non-generic, 
you can write a function that returns an object of type Bounded_Array 
assign it to a variable, then operate on that:

Name_List: Bounded_Array := Get_Names(...);

Since Name_List will take its bounds from the return value of Get_Names, 
Get_Names can be written to return a Bounded_Array where the maximum 
length is chosen based on the strings to be returned.  To go back to an 
earlier question, if your query matches twelve names, and the longest 
name matched has length 31, then Name_List.Size = 12, and Name_List.Max 
= 31.

-- 
                                                     Robert I. Eachus

"Quality is the Buddha. Quality is scientific reality. Quality is the 
goal of Art. It remains to work these concepts into a practical, 
down-to-earth context, and for this there is nothing more practical or 
down-to-earth than what I have been talking about all along...the repair 
of an old motorcycle."  -- from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle 
Maintenance by Robert Pirsig