Re: This is a simple question

[Ted Dennison<dennison@telepath.com>]

In article <9pkc0r$m5j$1@trog.dera.gov.uk>, Stephen Cole says...
>As for question 2. from reading this newsgroup I get the impression that
>there are quite a few "bugs" in gnat?! Is this a fair appraisal? Or is it

There are quite a few bugs in pretty much *any* large program, including all
compilers. The difference with Gnat is that it has lots of users, and is Free
Software, so discussion goes on about it in the open. This has nothing at all to
do with Ada. Go check out the GCC mailing list, and you'll see that the vast
majority of the talk there is about bugs. 

Generally I find that Gnat has *less* problems compling complicated
constructions than other Ada compilers I have used. Certianly no compiler bugs
that I have encountered in it in the last 5 years are what I would consider
"serious". Versions of it have been succesfully run through the Ada validation
suite, and have passed more of its tests than any other compiler. But it does
still have some minor problems in rarely-used areas.

p.s. One piece of advice: As a beginner, you would probably be much better off
avoiding the "use packagename;" clause altogether. Its very contraversial, as it
makes your source code less explicit. I don't ever use it, and most of the
projects I've worked on had that written into the coding standards (without my
help). But many other people whose opinions I respect feel its OK in certain
circumstances. When you have learned the language better you can make the choice
for yourself as to when its appropriate, but for now don't use it. 

---
T.E.D.    homepage   - http://www.telepath.com/dennison/Ted/TED.html

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