Re: friend classes in ada95

[tmoran@bix.com]

>In OO a class is data and the operations associated with that data.
>Therefore, Ada doesn't explicitly have classes because the data and the
>operations are not explicitly bound together.
  "Defined in the same package spec, and the operations take a parameter
of the (tagged) type" isn't sufficiently explicitly bound together?

>If we consider a class to be the tagged record and all of those
>operations that have access to the tagged record then viola, there is a
>class.
  So any user of the tagged record, even if it's an application that
merely passes the object as a black box, is part of the class?
Or if "access to the tagged record" means "knows about and can
access the record's components", then everything in the package
body, and, if the tagged record is not "is private", but rather is in
the public part of the spec, then any application code, is part of
the class?

The dictionary definition of a class is a set of things grouped
together because of a common trait.  What is common to the
definition of a data layout, or a data record, and a set of
procedures?  One is passive data, the other is active code.  OTOH,
a collection of things all deriving from the same ancestor, and
thus sharing certain traits, the Ada usage of "class", clearly fits
the dictionary definition.

I guess a "proper" OOer would have to say "The class Mammalia,
nursing, and live birth, are a class".  Obfuscation, IMHO.