Re: How do I write directly to a memory address?

[Hyman Rosen <hyrosen@mail.com>]

On 2/9/2011 6:07 PM, Shark8 wrote:
> In this context your "I really need to know what my subprogram
> is going to do" seems very much like some college-kid whining
> about how he "really needs to know what happens in book X,"
> while decrying people telling him "read the book."
>
> This is precisely to say that just as in reading the book the
> answer to the question is answered, so to is your "I need to
> know what happens" answered when a) contracts are made
> and enforced AND b) proofs of completeness&  correctness
> are done.

OK, I see that my attempts at being Socratic and oracular
are failing. What I'm trying to demonstrate is that the
chatter here about requirements and specifications and
contracts fails to capture essential aspects of programs
and even in Ada there's a good chance that you'll have to
read the bodies to know what's going on. (Thanks for playing
into that with the "read the book" example.)

The problem with my SumTo subprogram is that it's liable to
raise Storage_Error for a wide range of legal arguments. The
problem with my Exponent subprogram is that its running time
is enormous. Neither of these aspects can be made visible
through Ada language facilities, and typical mathematical
proofs of correctness won't show you this either.

Just like C programmers, you Ada folks still find a way to
get your work done, though.