Re: Conditional compilation in Ada?

["Steve" <nospam_steved94@comcast.net>]

I disagree with your argument.

Dynamic dispatching is fairly efficient, and may simplify coding.
Dispatching generally means getting the address of a function from a vtab
rather than calling the function directly.

Using variant records means explicitly checking for the variant type and
taking different action based on the variant.  Creating a new variation of
the record means modifying the original record (modifying proven code is
never a good thing when it is easily avoided) and chasing each part of the
code that takes different action based on the variants.

Using objects means deriving a new object and overloading specific
operations for that object.  The base object isn't touched.

Also: If the object is declared statically, the dispatching may happen
statically.

Steve
(The Duck)


"Jeffrey Carter" <spam@spam.com> wrote in message
news:xxOmd.1541$Tq6.592@newsread3.news.pas.earthlink.net...
> Steve wrote:
>
> > Without knowing more details, this sounds like a good place to use
> > OOP.
> >
> > Instead of directly manipulating the data structure, use procedures
> > to manipulate the data structure, and dispatch to the appropriate
> > instance type for your target.
>
> I would disagree. Using OOP and dispatching means that the decision
> making is dynamic and occurs at run time. Using variant records and case
> statements allows everything to be static and determined at compile time.
>
> -- 
> Jeff Carter
> "I'm a kike, a yid, a heebie, a hook nose! I'm Kosher,
> Mum! I'm a Red Sea pedestrian, and proud of it!"
> Monty Python's Life of Brian
> 77
>