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=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,1563af5c167aacf2 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-06-19 15:10:14 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news.tele.dk!small.news.tele.dk!207.115.63.138!newscon04.news.prodigy.com!newsmst01.news.prodigy.com!prodigy.com!postmaster.news.prodigy.com!newssvr13.news.prodigy.com.POSTED!3bae8248!not-for-mail From: tmoran@acm.org Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: thick? thin? binding References: X-Newsreader: Tom's custom newsreader Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: 67.112.203.22 X-Complaints-To: abuse@prodigy.net X-Trace: newssvr13.news.prodigy.com 1024514529 ST000 67.112.203.22 (Wed, 19 Jun 2002 15:22:09 EDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2002 15:22:09 EDT Organization: Prodigy Internet http://www.prodigy.com X-UserInfo1: OH\IRYOGTRUSP_@YMZJ\_Q\@TJ_ZTB\MV@BT]UEK@YUDUWYAKVUOPCW[ML\JXUCKVFDYZKBMSFX^OMSAFNTINTDDMVW[X\THOPXZRVOCJTUTPC\_JSBVX\KAOTBAJBVMZTYAKMNLDI_MFDSSOLXINH__FS^\WQGHGI^C@E[A_CF\AQLDQ\BTMPLDFNVUQ_VM Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2002 19:22:09 GMT Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:26443 Date: 2002-06-19T19:22:09+00:00 List-Id: > I read through 1 and a half Ada book and still doesnt catch what "thick" or > "thin" binding mean It's an informal term, originally referring to the thickness of the docs for the binding. For instance, a binding to Windows that just has the pragma Import specifications for the various function calls, and let's you go to some book on C calls in Windows for information, would be thin. A somewhat thicker binding would use Ada types and type checking, perhaps raise an exception on error instead of returning a code, etc. It would need some documentation of its own, but not too much. A thick binding would look like Ada, not C, perhaps use Ada tasking and OO instead of the message loop and case statement, use controlled types to help ensure things get properly destroyed with all the right Windows calls, etc. An extremely thick binding would hide even the fact you were running on Windows rather than Unix. See the "Thin vs Thick" section in the paper www.rrsoftware.com/prodinfo/triadapaper/triada.html