Re: List container strawman 1.1

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

"Simon Wright" <simon@pushface.org> wrote in message
news:x7v668hrpdz.fsf@smaug.pushface.org...
>
> It does rather go against the grain of the BCs, IMO, but I could add
> this (which does everything bar closed iteration). "Collection" is
> what everyone has been calling "List", BTW.  Almost all the operations
> could in fact be omitted in this package, because they are inherited,
> though one would have to "use" it to get at them easily and I suspect
> pedagogically one would prefer to see the operations. Just treat it as
> implementation inheritance.
>
It looks like it simplifies things quite a bit. I think that the more it
looks like what Ted was proposing, the more likely it is going to be an easy
alternative for the beginner and/or simple cases. Having glanced (see below)
at the BC instantiation thing, I can see where there is an objection to it
concerning simplicity and if this can be totally hidden for a plain-vanilla
case beneath some other package spec, I think newbies to it would be helped
considerably.

My impression from what I can see is that the BC's are a kind of
"Theoretically Pure" thing - an academic distilation of all the fundamental
behaviors and functionalities needed by a variety of data structures of
different shapes. This may provide some additional power and ability to
create new abstractions, but the poor bastard who just needs to pile up a
few employee records and step through them really doesn't care about the
intellectual niceties. He just wants a list he can get to quickly and
easily. That's why I'm suggesting an add-on that creates a shield from the
abstractions in the BC's while leaving the rest of it there in case someone
wants the more complex stuff.

>
> Has anyone had a chance to look at
> http://www.pushface.org/components/bc/case-study.html yet to see if
> I'm on anything like the right lines?
>
I gave it a cursory glance. Yes, I think that is on the right track - pick a
simple case and illustrate everything you need to do to get the job done.


>
> My first reaction was that if anyone can get their heads round Maps
> they should be able to do a couple of measly instantiations :-)

What do you mean "get their heads round Maps"? If we mean the same thing by
"Maps" I don't understand what is so complex?

generic
    type Index_Type is private ;
    type Item is private ;
    with function "<" (L, R: in Index_Type) is <> ;
package Maps is
    --
    --  Various types/procedures, etc. here that let you insert, delete,
retrieve
    --  and scan over things of type Item based on Index_Type. Your garden
    --  variety ISAM file in memory...
    --
end Maps ;


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/