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=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,FREEMAIL_FROM autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,54889de51045a215 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-10-22 12:50:26 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news2.google.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!small1.nntp.aus1.giganews.com!border3.nntp.aus1.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!wn14feed!worldnet.att.net!204.127.198.203!attbi_feed3!attbi.com!attbi_s52.POSTED!not-for-mail Message-ID: <3F96DF31.5040501@comcast.net> From: "Robert I. Eachus" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.0.2) Gecko/20021120 Netscape/7.01 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: += in ada References: <1066311805.222491@master.nyc.kbcfp.com> <3F8F3077.60402@comcast.net> <3F900F35.50203@comcast.net> <3F92B607.809@comcast.net> <3F937806.9080205@comcast.net> <3F953687.9070406@comcast.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.34.139.183 X-Complaints-To: abuse@comcast.net X-Trace: attbi_s52 1066852225 24.34.139.183 (Wed, 22 Oct 2003 19:50:25 GMT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2003 19:50:25 GMT Organization: Comcast Online Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2003 19:50:25 GMT Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:1465 Date: 2003-10-22T19:50:25+00:00 List-Id: Russ wrote: > I think "+=" or ":+" should be exactly equivalent to a procedure call. > Nothing more. Nothing less. A procedure does not return anything, and > neither should "+=". Sorry if that was not clear, but I really don't > understand why it wasn't. Did I ever suggest that "+=" should be like > a C function, with side effects *and* returning a value? I certainly > don't recall suggesting anything like that. If I had, then your > objections would have had some merit, but I did not. I agree, but then why have we had this huge, huge snitfit discussion? Change the topic to a desire to be able to have procedures named "+=", and you might generate some discussion or you might not. Again it won't happen, but it won't be waving an emotional red flag. I could probably go back and pick out a dozen posts where you swore that it was the assignment side effect that you wanted in Ada, but who cares. Remember, the procedural version will have three assignment operations, two of which can be optimized away. (For Inc(X), assign actual to formal, assign new value to formal, return formal to actual.) -- 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