RE: Variable length raw-byte data

[Kilgallen@eisner.decus.org.nospam (Larry Kilgallen)]

In article <9185vs$nh8$1@nnrp1.deja.com>, Robert Dewar <robert_dewar@my-deja.com> writes:
> In article
> <B6A1A9B09E52D31183ED00A0C9E0888C469942@nctswashxchg.
> nctswash.navy.mil>,
> 
>> So you're going to allocate 2GB to handle what
>> might be only 10 bytes (or even 1K or 10K).  That
>> should work well on a dedicated processor with 64 K
>> of memory.
> 
> Well you sure missed the point here :-)
> 
> Of *course* you never allocate an instance of a
> big array. in fact it is not a bad idea to add
> 
>   for big_string_ptr'storage_Size use 0;
> 
> to emphasize this. The ONLY way you create instances
> of the pointer is by unchecked conversion.

That is an interesting trick.  Is it new for Ada 95 ?

Looking at the nearest (old) manual for VAX/DEC/Compaq Ada (83),
it says that if the value specified is zero the default value of
"no limit" will be used.  Of course that is in the blue type,
meaning a description specific to that compiler. Is their approach
now outlawed for Ada 95, or was it outlawed by an AI for Ada 83 ?