Re: OO in Ada

["SteveD" <nospam_steved94@attbi.com>]

"Rick Duley" <rickduley@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:mailman.1033697703.29112.comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org...
[snip]
> 5.   One final thing (for this time anyway ;), why is it that that Ada
does
> not use the intuitive 'object.method' syntax for making calls to and
object.
>    This would mean that (in the case described in section 3) the call
would
> read
>
> Pen.Draw(To_X => n, To_Y => n);
>
> and with inheritance this would be accessible through the child package
> declaring Thick_Pen.  While I'm okay with using the existing syntax, I
feel
> the 'object.method' syntax is more intuitive and in line with OO thinking.

Although I hear the claim that object.method is more intuitive, I would have
to say I disagree.  In my opinion the only reason you see it as more
intuitive is because you learned it that way first (in a different
programming language).

In C++ there is a hidden "this" pointer quietly hiding in the background
that you must be very much aware of (if you're doing any serious
programming).  In Ada this is an explicit variable passed into the
procedure.  I would guess that a newbie would find the Ada syntax more
intuitive (I haven't heard of any evidence either way).

SteveD