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 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,60e2922351e0e780 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-11-10 05:38:55 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news2.google.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newshub.sdsu.edu!elnk-nf2-pas!newsfeed.earthlink.net!stamper.news.pas.earthlink.net!stamper.news.atl.earthlink.net!newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net.POSTED!d9c68f36!not-for-mail Message-ID: <3FAF94E9.20104@noplace.com> From: Marin David Condic User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.0.1) Gecko/20020823 Netscape/7.0 (OEM-HPQ-PRS1C03) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Clause "with and use" References: <3FA2CDCB.500F4AF0@fakeaddress.nil> <1067951806.729117@master.nyc.kbcfp.com> <1068123815.335508@master.nyc.kbcfp.com> <3FAAB12E.C7593B45@fakeaddress.nil> <3FACCBFB.9D288CF2@fakeaddress.nil> <3FAF8C99.5040201@noplace.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2003 13:38:54 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.165.2.144 X-Complaints-To: abuse@earthlink.net X-Trace: newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net 1068471534 209.165.2.144 (Mon, 10 Nov 2003 05:38:54 PST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2003 05:38:54 PST Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:2295 Date: 2003-11-10T13:38:54+00:00 List-Id: I don't think Ada should slavishly start emulating whatever exists in some other languages, but its worth looking at what things like C++ or Java have that Ada doesn't in so far as it covers some significant *capability*. C++ has the STL - it would be worth trying to get something like that into Ada. Java has a large library with other capabilities - Ada ought to consider that as a possibility. If we're talking syntax/semantics, is there something similar - like having a more class-like package construct? I'd even be willing to debate the relative merits of something like the method->object versus objec->method syntax since it seems to at least be non-trivial (although I think it doesn't really add any *capability* - just a syntax that might be more expressive of a given idiom and hence, probably not worth the effort.) In "Ada Letters (Vol XXIII, Num 3) Pascal Leroy outlined some of the changes expected in Ada and that shows some good examples of the kinds of things the ARG was willing to look into changing. Mutually dependent types, Type Stubs, Access To Private Units, etc. They seem to address some real limitation that makes it tough to express certain things in Ada. I don't see the "with and use" or the "+=" as being in the same category - they don't fix a hinderance to expressing something - except in a trivial way. The point is, let's not over-burden the ARG & compiler vendors with things that are not going to give the programmer something they couldn't get in some similar way with a little extra typing. MDC Preben Randhol wrote: > On 2003-11-10, Marin David Condic wrote: >> >>It would be more productive to figure out if there is some major >>shortcoming in Ada or some major capabilities that Ada could use rather >>than worry about relatively trivial syntax changes that don't address >>some gaping hole in Ada's capabilities. > > > Exactly. > > Preben -- ====================================================================== Marin David Condic I work for: http://www.belcan.com/ My project is: http://www.jsf.mil/NSFrames.htm Send Replies To: m o d c @ a m o g c n i c . r "Trying is the first step towards failure." -- Homer Simpson ======================================================================