Re: Anonymous Access and Accessibility Levels

[Optikos <optikos@verizon.net>]

On Wednesday, April 24, 2019 at 6:27:54 PM UTC-5, Randy Brukardt wrote:
> "Jere" <jhb.chat@gmail.com> wrote in message 
> news:ce96c027-79d6-4185-96ce-95823f637d8f@googlegroups.com...
> ...
> >I'm definitely aware of the HoD and its reputation.  I am a bit
> >discourage that there is not any resource (person or written)
> >available to help newcomers (or heck even somewhat experienced
> >Ada programmers) with issues like these.
> 
> It takes quite of bit of mental effort for even an ARG member like Tucker or 
> myself to want to even open 3.10.2. We even have a standing joke about 
> sending in a search party if someone doesn't come back from the trip.
> 
> The main problem is that even an experienced hand can get confused by all of 
> the rules and special cases, and one minor mistake can snowball into a 
> completely wrong conclusion. It's simply not for the faint of heart.
> 
> I suspect that accessibility implemented by compilers is essentially 
> whatever the ACATS tests require. I know that I've never spent time on it in 
> Janus/Ada beyond that -- it simply isn't worth self-inflicted pain. Thus, my 
> advice is that accessibility works like one would expect in basic cases, and 
> do not go beyond basic cases unless you like pain.
> 
>                                      Randy.

It sure seems like this is a problem:  when the language definition is so complex in English prose that even standardization-committee members and compiler-authors have immense difficulty utilizing it, then perhaps that is an A#1 indicator that English prose is itself the problem.  Perhaps Algol68's two-level grammar (or analogous different programmatically-readable specification 51 years later) specifying the rich semantic behavior as mapped into syntax was a step in the right direction after all, despite blowing everyone's minds at the time 51 years ago.

Although Ada's primary problem is lack of equal-sized* or greater-sized* competitor to GNAT, Ada's second-most problem is a specification that is in natural-language prose.

* as measured by mindshare in the marketplace

Ed/Shark8, this is the niche for Byron to chart new territory (as a 2019 total rethink of what the two-level grammar tried to do in Algol68) to make a major contribution.