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From: Dmitry A. Kazakov <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Standard Ada Preprocessor
Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004 10:10:30 +0100
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Date: 2004-01-28T10:10:30+01:00
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On Tue, 27 Jan 2004 16:41:50 -0500, "Warren W. Gay VE3WWG"
<warren@ve3wwg.tk> wrote:

>Randy Brukardt wrote:
>> "Warren W. Gay VE3WWG" <warren@ve3wwg.tk> wrote in message
>> news:ZwxRb.49242$Kg6.360396@news20.bellglobal.com...
>> ....
>>>I hate this. Conditional compilation would be a better
>>>solution for the developer because it is less error prone,
>>>and it is more natural.
>> 
>> I couldn't disagree. Now, try to figure out a natural way to express such
>> conditional compilation in Ada. I can't (and I've tried to solve this
>> problem for 20 years.) If you don't have a non-ugly way to solve the
>> problem, the chances of anything being done about it are zero.
>
>I agree that an elegant solution should always be sought.
>Especially if you are looking at the far reaching consequences
>of "language changes".  But if this problem has existed for
>20 years and no solution has come to light, then maybe it
>is time to consider a less elegant solution?

Conditional compilation is not less elegant it is disastrous. Ada
design is based on contracts. A conditional compilation contradicts to
this very principle. What kind of contract has Foo?

#if ...
procedure Foo (X : in out Integer);
#else
type Foo is record
   X : String;
end record;
#end if

IMO the solution is abstract packages.

--
Regards,
Dmitry A. Kazakov
www.dmitry-kazakov.de