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,LOTS_OF_MONEY autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,45b47ecb995e7a3 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-08-10 14:02:56 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!newsfeed.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!netnews.com!newsfeed.nyc.globix.net!newsfeed.sjc.globix.net!cyclone-sf.pbi.net!206.13.28.144!news.pacbell.net.POSTED!not-for-mail From: "Jay Nabonne" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada References: <3B6F1B2F.4FC3C833@gsde.hou.us.ray.com> <5ee5b646.0108071819.6e84e33d@posting.google.com> Subject: Re: Ada Idioms Progress Preview X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4133.2400 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4133.2400 Message-ID: <3_Xc7.45$NM5.84779@news.pacbell.net> Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2001 14:02:54 -0700 NNTP-Posting-Host: 63.194.203.138 X-Complaints-To: abuse@pacbell.net X-Trace: news.pacbell.net 997477375 63.194.203.138 (Fri, 10 Aug 2001 14:02:55 PDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2001 14:02:55 PDT Organization: SBC Internet Services Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:11782 Date: 2001-08-10T14:02:54-07:00 List-Id: "Robert Dewar" wrote in message news:5ee5b646.0108071819.6e84e33d@posting.google.com... > tmoran@acm.org wrote in message news:... > > Perhaps Ada should not have idioms. > > I understand Tom's point here, and I would rephrase it as a requirement > that Ada idiom's be obvious once seen to someone who knows Ada. That's > true for example of Stanley's Boolean'Pos idiom (which is indeed a > useful one to know). > > So when you read one of these idioms, the reaction should be one of > > a) ah, yes, I know that, and immediately know what it means > > b) ah, interesting way of doing things, yes, I understand it and > will remember this in future. > > It should not be: > > c) Gadzooks! What on earth does that mean, let me reach for the LRM. > Ah, yes, finally figured it out -- to clever for me! > (This isn't really a response to Robert, but my news reader lost the top of this thread, and this was the highest root I could attach a message to. :) As a C/C++ programmer who is looking with interest at Ada (after a rather entertaining discussion about Code Red in comp.lang.c++), what would be most useful for me - and it's what I thought of when I saw the word idiom - is something that says "in order to do , given that there's more than one way to do it within the Ada language, here's how you write code that looks like an Ada programmer wrote it and doesn't look like a C++-programmer-writing-Ada wrote it.". I'm interested in how to "think in Ada"... Jay-