Re: 'Image for composite types

["Jeffrey R. Carter" <spam.jrcarter.not@nospam.acm.org>]

Martin wrote:
> 
> I'm greedy...I want to override any stupid implementation defined
> subprogram with my fancy one! (perhaps one for XML output, another for
> csv, etc depending on the what I need the output for).

Let's see ... 1st, Martin asks for 'Image for composite types. 'Image is a 
"stupid" attribute function for numeric and enumeration types. Then, when 
someone provides a mechanism by which he could obtain such a thing, he says he 
doesn't want 'Image for composite types unless he can do things with it that he 
can't do with the existing 'Image. Sounds a bit like the kind of thing Babbage 
complained about:

"Propose to an Englishman any principle, or any instrument, however
admirable, and you will observe that the whole effort of the English
mind is directed to find a difficulty, a defect, or an impossibility
in it. If you speak to him of a machine for peeling a potato, he will
pronounce it impossible: if you peel a potato with it before his eyes,
he will declare it useless, because it will not slice a pineapple."
Charles Babbage

-- 
Jeff Carter
"What lazy lout left these wires all over the lawn?"
Poppy
98