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Date: 15 Aug 93 05:01:54 GMT
From: alex@MIMSY.CS.UMD.EDU  (Alex Blakemore)
Subject: Re: Unconstrained arrays
Message-ID: <70375@mimsy.umd.edu>
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

In article <9308111642.aa06180@Paris.ics.uci.edu> kanderso@mabillon.ICS.UCI.EDU
 (Kenneth Anderson) writes:
> >>   Viewers : str_array(1 .. 1) := (Create("text_artist"));
> >>--### A:error: RM 8.3: no visible identifier is of type str_array

I dont know about your compiler error, but if what you are trying
to do is to create a ragged array of strings AND the array is essentially const
ant,
I've found it much easier in Ada to define a string valued function than an arr
ay.

function viewers (index : positive) return string is
begin
  case index is
    when 1 => return "text_artist";
    when 2 => return "another string";
  ...

the calling code refers only to viewers (i).  this way you dont
have to do the dynamic allocation yourself, and a smart compiler might
put it all on the stack or on a data or even text segment.
you dont have to have a dynamic string type or use .all on each reference.

of course, this doesnt work as simply if you plan to be able to modify 
the mapping at run time.


-- 
Alex Blakemore       alex@cs.umd.edu        NeXT mail accepted
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"Without an engaged and motivated human being at the keyboard,
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