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From: g_harrison@vger.nsu.edu ((George C. Harrison) Norfolk State University)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: integer'image
Message-ID: <557.27a476f2@vger.nsu.edu>
Date: 28 Jan 91 23:09:37 GMT
References: <2390@shodha.enet.dec.com> <2638@sparko.gwu.edu>
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

In article <2638@sparko.gwu.edu>, mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman) writes:
> In article <2390@shodha.enet.dec.com> west@widgit.enet.dec.com (Jim West (Stealth Contractor)) writes:
>>
>>  The blank is for the sign field.  Positive numbers are displayed without
>>the '+' sign whereas negative numbers are displayed with the '-' sign.
>>
Ya... we know that!

etc.
> instance just on that, so 'image is the nice way to go. Indeed, I thought
> that was _just_ was integer'image was intended for!

The problem really is the formatting of enumerated elements, integers, and
[ideally] floats in the middle of string expressions.

I am tired of writing

PUT("The temperature at the");
MYINTEGER_IO.PUT(N,5);
PUT(" hour is");
MYFLOAT_IO.PUT(TEMPERATURE,7,2);
PUT(" ");
MYTEMPERATURE_TYPE_IO.PUT(FAHRENHEIT);
NEW_LINE;

etc.

> if Ada9x hasn't gotten the message by now, they never will.
> 
> Mike

Ada9x-folks have to admit that just because there is a "work-around" doesn't 
mean that there are parts of this great programming language that introduce 
some unnecessary complications to do some very common things.  

-- George C. Harrison -------------- || -- My opinions and observations --
---|| Professor of Computer Science  || -- Only. -------------------------
---|| Norfolk State University, ---- || ----------- Pray for Peace -------
---|| 2401 Corprew Avenue, Norfolk, Virginia 23504 -----------------------
---|| INTERNET:  g_harrison@vger.nsu.edu ---------------------------------

Do we really want to turn off the potential Ada community or do we want them to 
enjoy the language and most of us do?