Re: List container: Insert and Delete

[Ted Dennison<dennison@telepath.com>]

In article <9sra40$b8p$1@nh.pace.co.uk>, Marin David Condic says...
>
>False. But I see no need that a Bounded package and an Unbounded package
>have to be plug compatible. You very seldom would want to unplug the one and

I'd agree with this. The only compelling reason I could see for it would be if
we were using some kind of root tagged type to implement both (which we aren't),
and wanted to allow for dynamic dispatching on classwide list pointers.

I'm curious what people think about the extent of the compatability they should
have though. Should the look mostly alike, except for routines that don't make
sense in that context? Should we remove all basic-looking routines from either
implementation with time behavior >=O(N). Should the interface for bounded be
completely redesigned around things that you can do with bounded implementations
that you can't easily do with unbounded ones?

Personally, I think I'm leaning towards the middle-of-the road option, but its
not a strong leaning.


>plug in the other - you take the decision at the time of design and use the
>package that makes most sense then. Swapping implementations after that
>would mean some serious regression testing of the software, so you could
>probably modify it for any incompatibilities along the way and not be that
>bad off.
>
>I think it was Mark Twain who said something about "A foolish consistency is
>the product of little minds." :-)
>
>MDC
>--
>Marin David Condic
>Senior Software Engineer
>Pace Micro Technology Americas    www.pacemicro.com
>Enabling the digital revolution
>e-Mail:    marin.condic@pacemicro.com
>Web:      http://www.mcondic.com/
>
>
>"Jeffrey Carter" <jrcarter@acm.org> wrote in message
>news:3BF0827A.DCF2213C@acm.org...
>>
>> The difference, of course, is that you can provide an Is_Full function
>> for a bounded list, but not for an unbounded list. In both cases an
>> exception should be raised if an attempt is made to add an element when
>> that is not possible.
>>
>
>
>

---
T.E.D.    homepage   - http://www.telepath.com/dennison/Ted/TED.html

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