Re: Clause "with and use"

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

> Hyman Rosen:

[...]
> > for an example of the latter form. It contains
> >     with ADA.TEXT_IO, ADA.CALENDAR, ADA.CHARACTERS.LATIN_1;
> >     use  ADA.TEXT_IO, ADA.CHARACTERS.LATIN_1;
> >
> > So upon seeing a with/use pair, I have to read it carefully to
> > see if the two lists are the same, and if they are not, try to
> > figure out why that may be.

Warren W. Gay VE3WWG:
> The other problem is that you don't always want to "use"
> every with. Consider [...]

It is exactly what the author of the above code wanted,
not to "use" ADA.CALENDAR. *This* would be a lot clearer if only

with ADA.CALENDAR;
use ADA.TEXT_IO, ADA.CHARACTERS.LATIN_1;

was sufficient (this is the "implicit 'with'" variant) - or

with ADA.CALENDAR;
with and use ADA.TEXT_IO, ADA.CHARACTERS.LATIN_1;

And the list can be long in *certain* programs, *not* the
safety-critical code or whatever "special" code where
anyway an Ada subset without "use" at all is preferable,
*but* the "everyday programming" where some general-purpose
packages for
  - the Text_IO stuff
  - the Floating-point maths
  - GUI stuff
are obviously better to be "use"-d at the unit level.
And this is still a *minority* of packages, the other ones,
specialized, would be of course only "with"ed by normal persons.

All that is a question of style, project, taste, security,
about the usage of "use", which is already in the language.
The purpose of the proposal is not to reintroduce "use" or
changing any style rule, but *only* to make the life
easier and programs clearer when (and only when) we use
"use" as a context clause.
The question of desirability of "use" in such or such context
or for such or such package is *another* problem - and sorry,
"use" exists, it won't be removed, but if one wants one can
avoid it, at worst with a language subset, and it won't hurt
anybody.

The whole debate has (as expected ;-) shifted from
"how to make use-as-a-context-clause easier"
to
"to use or not to use"
or even
"to += or not to +=".
Please (dear participants) remain on-topic...
________________________________________________________
Gautier  --  http://www.mysunrise.ch/users/gdm/gsoft.htm

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