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From: 18k11tm001@sneakemail.com (Russ)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: efficient vector/matrix operations in Ada
Date: 13 Aug 2001 21:56:06 -0700
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Ted Dennison<dennison@telepath.com> wrote in message news:<aGXd7.88$2u.23428@www.newsranger.com>...
> In article <bebbba07.0108131145.8e90df5@posting.google.com>, Russ says...
> (talking about matrices with redefined math ops)
> >Here's how you write "A = B + C + D;" efficiently:
> >
> >    A  = B;
> >    A += C;
> >    A += D;
> >
> >really needs arithmetic assignment operators. Sure, you can use
> >procedures, but they're intent and effect is not as obvious to the
> >reader.
> 
> Perhaps to a reader who is *already* familiar with the idiom above that is true.
> I'm not, and it took me a couple of takes to see what you were doing here (and a
> bit of thought to figure out why). For someone starting from ground zero, I
> think the point is quite arguable.

If you know even a tiny bit of C++, the "+=" notation is very obvious.
And it's use here in my example of matrix addition is perfectly
consistent with its use for normal scalar addition. No, you don't
absolutely need those operators, but neither do you need to be able
define your own "+", "-", etc. in Ada either. So why does Ada have
some nice-looking operators but not have the operators one really
needs for efficient code? I guess the goofy syntax isn't the only
problem with Ada, eh?

Russ