Re: Assembling Complex Strings Containing Carriage Returns Prior to Using Ada.Text_IO.Put?

[NiGHTS <nights@unku.us>]

On Wednesday, October 22, 2014 2:25:25 AM UTC-4, Jeffrey Carter wrote:
> On 10/21/2014 10:57 PM, NiGHTS wrote:
> 
> > 
> 
> > Complex_String : Ada.Strings.Unbounded.Unbounded_String;
> 
> > EOL            : String := ASCII.CR'Img;
> 
> 
> 
> I presume you're using GNAT; this gives you the image of the enumeration value
> 
> CR; I suspect you want the enumeration value (character) itself. Try using
> 
> 
> 
> EOL : constant Character := Ada.Characters.Latin_1.CR;
> 
> 
> 
> 'Img is a non-standard, vendor-dependent attribute; you should not use it in
> 
> production code if you have any interest in portability. ASCII is an obsolete
> 
> unit and should not be used.
> 
> 
> 
> What system uses CR for line terminators these days? I suspect the result will
> 
> not be what you expect, which is why a better approach would be to actually
> 
> convert this to Ada and simply use a series of Put_Line statements, rather than
> 
> trying to copy the mistakes of C in Ada.
> 
> 
> 
> > The searches I performed on Google seem to be void of any hints on how to get this working. I can't imagine that I am the only one with this requirement in Ada.
> 
> 
> 
> That's because this is not the Ada Way.
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> 
> Jeff Carter
> 
> "We call your door-opening request a silly thing."
> 
> Monty Python & the Holy Grail
> 
> 17

Do keep in mind that the strategy of buffering output before sending it to screen is not "old", its "smart". I did consider what you suggested for this particular project, but then I realized that rewriting the code in question to use Put_Line would actually make the code both less readable and far less efficient, both things which are not the Ada way.

While using Put_Line is safer in its portability, its avoidance in this particular instance is comparable to favoring "goto" for a specific section of code after determining the alternative as being more complex or otherwise less desirable.

Thank you for your response.