Re: Conditional Compilation

[Robert Dewar <robert_dewar@my-deja.com>]

In article <39C7C748.4A533989@netwood.net>,
  "E. Robert Tisdale" <edwin@netwood.net> wrote:
> The ANSI/ISO C/C++ standards now specify
> syntax and semantics for the C macro preprocessor
> but you can still use the C macro preprocessor
> on Ada source files as long as the translation unit
> is an acceptable Ada program.
> Try it.  It works.

Well almost, the requirement of valid C tokens causes
trouble with constructions like Integer'Val (x)!

> Now, professional programmers almost never write
> programs in Ada, C, C++ or any other standard
> computer programming language directly.
> They usually use perl, the m4 macro preprocessor,
> the sed stream editor or some combination of tools
> to write programs for them from "prototype files"
> which they maintain instead of source files.

In fact the percentage of programming done this way,
particularly in large Ada programs, is quite small, and
the applicability of such techniques is quite limited.
The "almost never" in the above paragraph is a huge
exaggeration.


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