Re: Static variables?

[ok@goanna.cs.rmit.edu.au (Richard A. O'Keefe)]

dewar@merv.cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar) writes:

>And that by the way is a reminder to C programmers writing in Ada. Do NOT
>use global variables gratuitously.

...

>Assuming you are not explicitly using tasking, approach 3 is task safe, but
>may not easily occur to C programmers writing in Ada, because they are not
>used to writing nested procedures (note the phrasing of the original
>question -- when anyone asks "How can I do X in language Y", where X is
>a technical term from some other language, alarm bells should go off, because
>it is likely that someone is trying to port an unnatural design.

One of the things that has me bewildered and worried is the growing number
of concurrent languages _without_ nested subprograms.  Java is an obvious
example.  Another recent example is Limbo.  The Limbo IPC mechanism is
tranmitting messages over named typed channels.  All processes run in the
same address space.  There are no nested procedures.  Presto no-chango:
it is the _programmer's_ job to ensure that variables are not operated on
in multiple threads.  Ada looks better and better every day.

-- 
Will maintain COBOL for money.
Richard A. O'Keefe; http://www.cs.rmit.edu.au/%7Eok; RMIT Comp.Sci.