Re: Does Ada have macros ?

[mg@asp.camb.inmet.com (Mitch Gart)]

B Catlin (bcatlin@aol.com) wrote:
: I don't seem to remember Ada 83 having a macro capability, does Ada 95 ? 
: If not, why not ?

No macros, either in Ada 83 or Ada 95.  General text-substitution
macros like those in the C preprocessor are thought to be too 
unsafe.  For example, a macro can refer to a variable X and 
depending where the macro is expanded X may or may not be visible.
Ada programs are supposed to be readable and in many cases C
macros are one of the main culprits in producing unreadable C
programs.

In C macros can be used (and mis-used) in lots of ways but three legitimate
uses are for defining compile-time constants, types, and inline functions.
Ada has all three of these facilities.

	Mitch Gart