Re: Ada Generic vs. C++ Templates

["Ehud Lamm" <mslamm@mscc.huji.ac.il>]

Josef Widder <e9625114@student.tuwien.ac.at> wrote in message
news:MPG.1532ab1cc6ed7b4989682@news.chello.at...
> As project for university i'd like to compare the power of the Ada
> Generic construct relative to C++ templates.
>
> Could someone please tell me where to find good articles on the generic
> construct ?
>


In fact this is a pretty large subject. I'd restrict it to something more
managable (like "automatic instantiation vs. explicit instantiation" or the
way generic paramaters are specified etc.).

Some useful (I think) references are:
* the Ada83 Rationale chapter on generics
* Alexander Stepanov writings and intervies (some are available on the net,
and I gave URLs in this newsgroup a couple of times). He discusses some this
he considers shortcomings in Ada, as opposed to C++, as related to creating
the STL.
* You may want to check specific uses. The are several examples of C++
temlate libraries that are hard if not impossible to mimic in Ada. Esp.
attempts at providing high-order programming facilties. (I don't have a URL
handy, but a search at http://lambda.weblogs.com should get you started. You
may also raise your question at that site).
* Another thing that may be interesting is to check specific programming
styles. For example Ada's formal package paramters are a bit like using
classes to specify generic parameters, but they induce a different
programming style.

Any way, as I said, this is really a big subject. I suggest you check some
of these and focus your research on something a bit more specific. (Or more
general, like paramateric polymorphism in general).

I'd be glad to help. Email me or use the above mentioned site. (Or here, of
course).

Good luck,

Ehud Lamm