Re: Attributes 'Version and 'Body_Version

["Marin David Condic" <dont.bother.mcondic.auntie.spam@[acm.org>]

Well, its useful enough for an application to be able to say: "I know I am
dependent on version 'LMNOP' and if the version is anything but 'LMNOP' then
I'd better take evasive action because something may not work." But if there
is some ability to determine order for the version strings, you get even
more usefulness out of it. You can then write code that can say things like
"I know that version '12345' and greater support feature X so it is O.K. for
me to use feature X." or "Versions prior to '54321' only support data items
A, B, and C, while versions between '54321' and '54323' support D, ane E,
and so now I know what I can read in and display..."

Like I said, it won't be "standard" but it still might be useful.

It might not hurt for Ada0x to insist that Something'Version and
Something'Body_Version yield a string that is increasing in sort order with
each change. That at least would let you do "<" and ">" comparisons and know
you are still portable.

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/


"Tony Gair" <tonygair@donot.spam.btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:9sbb1f$2bm$1@plutonium.btinternet.com...
> On a hopefully slightly more helpful note :-
>
> I think it is used in the Glade distrib. annex (Godinspired Labour, Design
> and Engineering)
> examples to compare versions, my interest would be in checking a client
from
> a server to
> check the version of the client.
>
> On the subject of the RM though has anyone read this ...
> The glade user guide, RM and a certain book written by John Barnes
> is far less likely to send you asleep.