Re: debugging tool?

[tmoran@acm.org]

> Right. So put in a flag Object.Finalized, and check Object.Finalized
> in _every_ operation on Object. Raise an exception, or silently do
> nothing, your choice.
> >   Main_Object : Main_Object_Type;      -- Controlled type
> >   Helper_Object : Helper_Object_Type;  -- also Controlled
By "Object" here you must mean Main_Object_Type, right?  So
  type Main_Object_Type is new Ada.Finalization.Controlled with record
    Helper_Finalized : Boolean
    ...
That's great for future development, but I'm look for something to
automatically examine a large body of existing code.  Often
Main_Object_Type doesn't know much at all about Helper_Object_Type, and
may well have been coded long before someone added a helper type.  (eg,
Helper_Type keeps a usage count of Main_Object_Type's and does something
when they've all gone away.  Even if Helper_Type is a simple integer, it's
questionable to access it after it's de-elaborated=finalized).
In general, I'd like a tool (if not the compiler) to catch non-obvious
errors like this.