From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.4 required=5.0 tests=AC_FROM_MANY_DOTS,BAYES_00, LOTS_OF_MONEY autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,92640d662fc31a03 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-05-04 11:56:16 PST Path: newsfeed.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news.tele.dk!193.251.151.101!opentransit.net!fr.clara.net!heighliner.fr.clara.net!isdnet!psinet-france!psiuk-f4!psiuk-p4!uknet!psiuk-n!news.pace.co.uk!nh.pace.co.uk!not-for-mail From: "Marin David Condic" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: howto make system calls (newbie question) Date: Fri, 4 May 2001 14:46:11 -0400 Organization: Posted on a server owned by Pace Micro Technology plc Message-ID: <9cutdk$kc3$1@nh.pace.co.uk> References: <9cuj1n$gsu$1@nh.pace.co.uk> NNTP-Posting-Host: 136.170.200.133 X-Trace: nh.pace.co.uk 989001972 20867 136.170.200.133 (4 May 2001 18:46:12 GMT) X-Complaints-To: newsmaster@pace.co.uk NNTP-Posting-Date: 4 May 2001 18:46:12 GMT X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4522.1200 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4522.1200 Xref: newsfeed.google.com comp.lang.ada:7176 Date: 2001-05-04T18:46:12+00:00 List-Id: I think my point in bringing up the C Standard Library was not to suggest we simply create some pragma imports for it and declare them part of the Ada standard. I was thinking along the lines of "Here's some stuff that programmers are used to having around. Shouldn't Ada provide some *similar* features - done The Ada Way (tm)?" Where we *might* want to produce a bunch of pragma imports is where there is some reasonably common & standard library of stuff that could/should be hooked to in a standard way. Even there, I'd prefer a slightly thicker binding that had parameters passed The Ada Way and possibly generalized so that it wasn't tied to some specific implementation. For example, it would be possible to produce a standard package for connecting to sockets that provided some minimal TCP/IP capability with child packages allowed for anything that might be system dependent. Compilers are already doing this kind of thing in many places but it would be handy to insure that the specification was agreed-upon so that portability would be preserved. (There's lots of GNAT.Something out there that is useful, but would it be done the same way in Aonix.Something? At minimum, you'd want the package names to line up!) As for a time string, I have no problem with the notion of providing a date/time string in a completely arbitrary and capricious manner and saying "This is what you get if you use the standard routine for quick & dirty display of time stuff." (Sort of a 'Image for time?) Obviously, the writing of routines to produce every conceivable string/time representation still remains possible and is left as an exercise for the student. At least the programmer has *one* string formatted time available that might actually be a fairly common time representation. MDC -- Marin David Condic Senior Software Engineer Pace Micro Technology Americas www.pacemicro.com Enabling the digital revolution e-Mail: marin.condic@pacemicro.com Web: http://www.mcondic.com/ wrote in message news:gWBI6.38284$Jh5.35484299@news1.rdc1.sfba.home.com... > Perhaps this is a clue to the "why it hasn't been done question". > Some of this is pointless for Ada, since we already have Ada.Calendar. > And the formatting stuff, like asctime, seems to be a victim of the > "curse of creativity" - everyone has their own idea of what should > be done (see recent thread on date & time formatting routines). > > The simple translation into a bunch of "pragma Import"s is not > exactly exciting, and does not garner much money or fame for the > person who does the grunt work. >