Re: status of Ada STL?

[dennison@telepath.com (Ted Dennison)]

18k11tm001@sneakemail.com (Russ) wrote in message news:<bebbba07.0206132321.23d72ac8@posting.google.com>...
> I am trying to determine the status of the Ada version of the C++
> Standard Template Library. I see that this has been discussed in the

I vaguely remember someone talking about trying to clone the STL. I
don't think that's being actively worked on now.

There are efforts underway to expand Ada's standard library to include
a bit more stuff, including some stuff similar to things in the STL.
(Eg: Lists and Maps).

> to the C++ STL? And does Ada have any fundamental limitations that
> preclude the full functionality of the C++ version? Thanks.

As far as cloning the STL goes, one would run into a couple of
problems, I think. The first is that C++ templates use a kind of
structural equivalence for templates, rather than named equivalence
like Ada uses for generics. That means that its easier to make all the
C++ templates interoperate with each other than it would be for Ada
generics (there are drawbacks to that, though, which is why Ada
doesn't do it).

The second issue is that C++ templates allow a lot more options for
default template parameters than Ada generics do. This isn't fatal for
an Ada STL, but it would make the Ada clone of the STL much harder to
use than the C++ STL is.

Thirdly, there's a fair bit of stuff in the STL that Ada already has
or does not need. Strings, vectors, and bit sets are some examples.


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