Re: "Use"ing Enumerated type values?

[jakrzy@ss2.magec.com (James A. Krzyzanowski)]

GAFFNEY.BRIAN (gaffney@ewir-wr) wrote:
: I'm trying to write a program utilizing the ANSI screen package posted by
: Ray Toal.  What I'd like to do for clarity is something like this:
: --
: with Text_IO;
: with Ansi_Terminal;
: procedure Test_Ansi is
:   package Ansi renames Ansi_Terminal;
:   ForeGrd, BackGrd : Ansi.Color;   -- type Color is (Black,..., White);
: begin
:   Ansi.Erase_Display;
:   BackGrd := White;			--Error, White not visible
:   ForeGrd := Black;  			--Error, Black not visible
:   Ansi.Set_Character_Colors (BackGrd, ForeGrd);
:   Text_IO.Put("This should be home.");
: end Ansi_Test;
: --
: However, to use the values for Ansi.Color, I need to specify "Ansi.White" and
: "Ansi.Black".  I'd like to use the values of Color without the "Ansi."
: everytime.  Since I don't want to "use" Ansi_Terminal, I thought "use type
: Ansi.Color" would work but I still can't use the values directly.  If I define 
: my own Color as a subtype of Ansi.Color, I can define my variables as Colors, 
: and refer to the values of Color, but I can't use these variables as parameters
: to routines in Ansi (they expect type Ansi.Color).

: Is there any way to refer directly to the values of a type without "use"ing the
: entire package?

In Ada83, you can do the following; although it is NOT recommended (I
would recommend that you just use the "package"."value")...

  function Black return Ansi.Color renames Ansi.Black;
  function White return Ansi.Color renames Ansi.White;
  ...

--
Not necessarily the opinion of the company...
--
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         James A. Krzyzanowski - Senior Software Engineer - AFATDS
Magnavox Electronic Systems Company * Fort Wayne, IN 46808 * (219) 429-6446
Internet: jakrzy@most.fw.hac.com * AOL: JimShiz@AOL.com * MOST: jakrzy@most
            "I'd rather be right than politically correct !!!"
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