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From: mfb@mbunix.mitre.org (Michael F Brenner)
Subject: Re: renaming Interfaces.Java.Ada_To_Java_String to the + operator
Date: 1998/01/16
Message-ID: <69ntk6$qj8@top.mitre.org>#1/1
X-Deja-AN: 316548825
References: <01bd1e34$1632c2c0$24326489@Westley-PC.calspan.com>
 <01bd1fc9$99302a00$24326489@Westley-PC.calspan.com> <dewar.884801478@merv>
 <01bd21ff$7f85e3a0$95fc82c1@xhv46.dial.pipex.com>
Organization: The MITRE Corporation, Bedford Mass.
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Date: 1998-01-16T00:00:00+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>


(discussing using a prefix + operator to change types)

   > .. in what cases will the extra length really matter ..

Using a function call (say, about 10 characters long) versus
using a single character (+) to represent the type change
is more readable on a single instance of the conversion.

The place where the extra length really matters is when you
have a lot of input to do, say 10000 lines, then you are saving
100000 key strokes, which could be a lot of data input money.

This almost suggests a compromise that unary operators should
have a corresponding function name. Use the function name
for small numbers (say 10 or fewer) instances.

Use the prefix operator when doing large amounts of stuff, like
defining large finite state machines, filling in giant arrays,
making test cases, defining test scenarios for a package body, etc.

Mike Brenner