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,a3176060eb5b787e
X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public
X-Google-ArrivalTime: 1995-03-23 06:04:33 PST
Path: 
 nntp.gmd.de!dearn!blekul11!ccsdec1.ufsia.ac.be!reks.uia.ac.be!idefix.CS.kuleuven.ac.be!
 Belgium.EU.net!EU.net!news.sprintlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!gatech!udel!news.mathworks.com!zombie.ncsc.mil!admii!cmcl2!thecourier.cims.nyu.edu!thecourier.cims.nyu.edu!nobody
From: dewar@cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Does Ada have macros ?
Date: 22 Mar 1995 20:34:51 -0500
Organization: Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences
Message-ID: <3kqj7r$7ku@gnat.cs.nyu.edu>
References: <3kn413$259@newsbf02.news.aol.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: gnat.cs.nyu.edu
Date: 1995-03-22T20:34:51-05:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

Actually, there was a Steelman requirement that the lanuage developed
NOT have a macro capability.

This was a well-thought-out requirement. Compile time macro facilities
tend to be dreadfully overused, resulting in horrible maintenance
problems, and furthermore, there is a tendency to use them to patch
up glaring omissions in the language. For example, C has no named
constants, a very bad omission, but #define can be used to patch
over this gap.

The better way to handle the equivalent of conditional compilation is
in most instances to isolate the system dependent parts and then put
them in separate units with multiple implementations.