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From: eachus@spectre.mitre.org (Robert I. Eachus)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Child packages
Date: 20 Oct 94 11:09:15
Organization: The Mitre Corp., Bedford, MA.
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References: <1994Oct4.090807@di.epfl.ch> <37kanl$jfd@u.cc.utah.edu>
	<EACHUS.94Oct17115240@spectre.mitre.org> <1994Oct18.103131@di.epfl.ch>
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	<383h86$12ip@watnews1.watson.ibm.com> <38496c$1l1@gnat.cs.nyu.edu>
	<385thq$kh6@watnews1.watson.ibm.com>
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In-reply-to: ncohen@watson.ibm.com's message of 20 Oct 1994 14:06:50 GMT
Date: 1994-10-20T11:09:15+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

In article <385thq$kh6@watnews1.watson.ibm.com> ncohen@watson.ibm.com (Norman H. Cohen) writes:

  > While child packages provide many more advantages than
  > disadvantages, I feel we have lost something important from Ada
  > 83--a clearly marked, compiler-recognized distinction between
  > those aspects of a module that do and do not form a part of its
  > "contract".

   Exactly!  And there may be no better way to "fix" this problem than
the current language specification.  The problem is not that you can't
write Ada 9X code so that the private part is exactly the contract
with the child units, but that there is a lot of Ada 83 code that is
not written this way.  (Note that one method of making it explicit is
to move some declarations from the private part to a private child.)

    With education and tool support, the problem should disappear
relatively quickly as old code is updated to new standards.  I'm sorry
if Robert Dewar doesn't think that comp.lang.ada is the right place to
discuss those issues.  Back to the previous idiom, I am not objecting
to all the new senic lookouts.  I am just trying to make sure that the
fences there look pleasing, don't interfere with the view, and do
provide the needed safety.

--

					Robert I. Eachus

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