Re: new revision ada

[James Rogers <jimmaureenrogers@att.net>]

Roland Illig <roland.illig@gmx.de> wrote in news:2jpj43F12qulvU1@uni-
berlin.de:

> James Rogers wrote:
>> Why not consider all leaving exception messages as strings.
>> Any more complex information can be encoded in the string as an
>> XML message. That message can then be sent by well defined
>> mechanisms from one subprogram to another, one task to another,
>> and across distributed systems.
> 
> 11.4.1#18 [Implementation Permissions]
> The string returned by Exception_Message may be truncated (to no less 
> than 200 characters) by the Save_Occurence procedure (not the function), 
> the Reraise_Occurrence procedure and the re-raise statement.
> 
> You didn't want to encode an XML message in 200 characters, did you? :)

No. I also do not expect that an Ada 95 limit on the length of an
exception message will necessarily be retained for Ada 200X. 
For instance, the definition of Exception_Message may be retained
for compatibility, while another kind of message, such as
Extended_Exception_Message may be implemented a new string type
that includes XML encoding and parsing/decoding capabilities.

IMHO, this could be one area where Ada takes a lead rather than
playing catch-up with other languages. Ada will be able to stake
out some interesting capability by providing a string type that
includes XML handling capabilities and then extending the use
of that type to exceptions. The addition of such XML capabilities,
even if an extension of the distributed systems annex, will allow
Ada to take a vibrant position in modern distributed application
development.

Jim Rogers