From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me
X-Spam-Level: 
X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham
	autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4
X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit
X-Google-Thread: 103376,1c1a139977eee854
X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public
X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-04-20 20:59:47 PST
Path: 
 archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!feed2.news.rcn.net!rcn!wn14eed!wn1feed!worldnet.att.net!204.127.198.203!attbi_feed3!attbi.com!sccrnsc01.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: Wannabe h4x0r <chris@dont.spam.me>
Subject: Re: Case statement and Integers.
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
References: <vChw8.79741$G72.57096@sccrnsc01>
 <Itiw8.3026$dk4.1626810405@newssvr14.news.prodigy.com>
User-Agent: Pan/0.11.1 (Unix)
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-Comment-To: "tmoran" <tmoran@acm.org>
Message-ID: <SOqw8.83292$G72.59381@sccrnsc01>
NNTP-Posting-Host: 12.245.48.122
X-Complaints-To: abuse@attbi.com
X-Trace: sccrnsc01 1019361586 12.245.48.122 (Sun, 21 Apr 2002 03:59:46 GMT)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 21 Apr 2002 03:59:46 GMT
Organization: AT&T Broadband
Date: Sun, 21 Apr 2002 03:59:47 GMT
Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:22849
Date: 2002-04-21T03:59:47+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

On Sat, 20 Apr 2002 14:31:04 -0400, tmoran wrote:

>   The items after the "when" must be constant values of "numbers(j)".
> This code has dynamic boolean expressions.  "case" is not just another
> syntax for "if then".  When the compiler sees a "case" statement it
> should, at least conceptually if not in implementation, be able to
> create a jump table indexed by the value of "numbers(j)".  It clearly
> can't do that here.
> If you had a comparison function
>   type Compare_Results is (LT, EQ, GT); function Compare(Left, Right :
>   Numbers_Type) return Compare_Results;
> then you could say
>   case Compare(numbers(j), pivot) is
>     when LT =>
>     when GT =>
>     when EQ =>
>   end case;
> because the compiler could create a three-entry jump table.
> 

This technique works but ...

>> Using an if..else statement wouldn't be original.
>   Bicycling to Hawaii is original - but it won't work either.  In
> Software Engineering, the point is to make something that works, not
> necessarily something original.  In fact, since you will abandon most of
> your code to your maintenance successors (one hopes you move on to new
> things!), and originality will just confuse them, originality itself is
> a downright *negative* aspect of code, to be used only when the negative
> is outweighed by the positive benefits of the novel technique.

... your point is well taken. I suppose I do have a tendency to go
overboard.
I'll keep your technique in mind, but will for the time being defer to
the if...then...else method of doing the sort.

Thanks

Chris