Re: Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

["AG" <ang@xtra.co.nz>]

"Georg Bauhaus" <sb463ba@d2-hrz.uni-duisburg.de> wrote in message
news:b5hv8e$m60$3@a1-hrz.uni-duisburg.de...
> AG <ang@xtra.co.nz> wrote:

> : the package and be able to do things like  'range  *no matter how that
> : index is implemented*. Should be up to the implementor really - if it
> : can't be done, so be it.
>
> I trust compiler writers have their reasons for Ada arrays :)

Well, yes, of course, I don't doubt that. However, from the point
of view of the language user it means that if you do need (or want)
array indexing like that you have to do it by hand, loose language
support in the process and generally obscure things (which seems
to run contrary to the language philosophy :-)

> (I vaguely remember an example by Tucker Taft where he showed how
> you can have the effect of non-contigous indices, if that is of
> interest here.)

Do you mean implemented by hand as an application code or
supported by the language? If later, I would be interested in
a reference please.