Re: boolean array

[dewar@gnat.com (Robert Dewar)]

Christoph Grein <christoph.grein@eurocopter.com> wrote in message news:<mailman.1011938222.12962.comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org>...
> Foo : array (some_range) of Boolean;
>     ...
>     Any_False_Present : constant Boolean := Foo /= (some_range => True);
> 
> But faster/preferred ??

If the array is packed, this should be fast. Here using the
latest version of GNAT, is a source program:

  procedure K is
    type Rng is range 1 .. 8;
    type a is array (Rng) of Boolean;
    pragma Pack (a);
    va : a := (1 => False, others => True);

  begin
     if va = (Rng => True) then 
        null;
     end if;
  end;

And here is the expanded source program:

  procedure k is
     type k__rng is range 1 .. 8;
     type k__a is array (1 .. 8) of boolean;
     pragma pack (k__a);
     va : k__a := k__T6b!(16#FE#);
  begin
     if va = k__T10b!(16#FF#) then
        null;
     end if;
     return;
  end k;

The ! here is unchecked conversion, and the implementation
type of va is an 8 bit unsigned number, so as you can see
this reduces the cost to a single comparison instruction.

For those who need to see the asm to be convinced, here 
it is:

	.file	"k.adb"
gcc2_compiled.:
___gnu_compiled_ada:
.text
	.align 2
.globl __ada_k
__ada_k:
	pushl %ebp
	movl %esp,%ebp
	subl $4,%esp
	movb $254,-1(%ebp)
	cmpb $255,-1(%ebp)
	jne L2
L2:
	jmp L1
	.align 2,0x90
L1:
	leave
	ret