Re: Return_By_Reference or Return_By_Copy (GNAT bug?)

["Randy Brukardt" <randy@rrsoftware.com>]

"Larry Kilgallen" <Kilgallen@SpamCop.net> wrote in message
news:$xgF7TJy$z4V@eisner.encompasserve.org...
> >> package body B is
> >>
> >>    The_A : A_Type;
> >>
> >>    function Get_The_A return A_Type is
> >>    begin
> >>       return The_A;
> >
> > -- This return will be illegal in Ada 2005 (the return expression is not
an
> > aggregate or function call).
>
> Even though nothing in that sample says protected ?

It's nothing to do with protected; the rules for all functions returning
*limited* types have changed. (Both to make constructor functions possible,
and to make limited interfaces be near universal.) The incompatibility is
fairly rare (such functions are rarely useful in Ada 95), and the workaround
is easy -- with one possible exception: functions returning limited private
types. (Those seem more common.) Note, however, that such a function, while
legal in Ada 95, probably would raise Program_Error if instantiated with a
really limited type. So we're just making a run-time problem into a
compile-time one: that is, detecting an error earlier.

                            Randy.