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From: clines@delete_this.airmail.net (Kevin Cline)
Subject: Re: Any research putting c above ada?
Date: 1997/05/14
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Date: 1997-05-14T00:00:00+00:00
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Alan Brain <aebrain@dynamite.com.au> wrote:

>Kevin Cline wrote:
>
>> I didn't say you would RETURN a reference to a container.
>> I said you would pass one.
>
>> In C++, you would write something like:
>> 
>>   void Read_File_Lines(vector<string>& lines, istream& in)
>
>And in Ada-83 even, you just pass the parameter as an _in out_ , which
>compilers will pass by reference rather than value.
>
>You lose a bit in safety (forex the array being passed may be
>unitialised, so may contain random garbage, which if read inside the
>procedure will cause interesting results), but gain in efficiency, it's
>a judgement call that will depend on circumstances.
>

This is useless when the size of the array required is computed inside the
function.  Some kind of dynamic data structure is required to write this code
with reasonable efficiency.