Re: Ada access vs C/C++ pointers and references

[duggar@mit.edu (Keith H Duggar)]

> No. This is just syntax. "." would have worked just fine for
> dereferencing C/C++ pointers. I suspect the reason for using "->" was
> just to make it more visible that you are using a pointer.

Originally in C "x->" was shorthand for "(*x)."

However, in C++ "->" serves the very useful purpose of
(via operator overloading) allowing smart pointer types
and iterator types to have the same semantics of raw
pointers in addition to allowing the usual member access.
Thus

iterator->f()       //access f() in object "pointed" to
smart_pointer->f()  //access f() in object "pointed" to
iterator.f()        //access f() in iterator object
smart_pointer.f()   //access f() in smart pointer object

Otherwise, if the pointed to type had a function named f
and the iterator had a function named f which function would
interator.f() access?

How is this resolved in Ada?

Also, I'm sure there were C compatibility constraints as well.