Re: User define attributes

["Martin Dowie" <martin.dowie@nospam.baesystems.com>]

been there; done that; got the compiler listing... :-)

I suspect there are many companies out there with very
similar generics.

I suppose we have to ask the question - if it is that
easy (and relative to the actual application, it
usually is!) then why isn't 'Image for composite types
part of the language?..

Samuel T. Harris <u61783@gsde.hou.us.ray.com> wrote in message
news:3ADB033A.F10344A9@gsde.hou.us.ray.com...
> It is trivial to build a generic which implements the a
> width, value, and image function for arrays. All it needs
> are the width, value, and image functions for the indexes
> and composite types.
>
> It is somewhat harder to build a generic for records
> since the "index" are the field names and the composite
> function depend upon which field is in use. But it
> can be done.
>
> I routinely write width, value, and image functions
> for all my important types. Having these generics
> in place, I get these routines with some simple
> handler code and a generic instantiations. With them
> I get the following advantages ...
>
> 1. I can easily insert put_line kinds of debug code.
> 2. If supported, I can call them within my debugger.
> 3. I can defer aggregrate initialization of variables
>    to file_io during elaboration, and vice-versa.