Re: user-defined type conversion

[18k11tm001@sneakemail.com (Russ)]

"David C. Hoos, Sr." <david.c.hoos.sr@ada95.com> wrote in message news:<mailman.1021805103.320.comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org>...
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Russ" <18k11tm001@sneakemail.com>
> Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
> To: <comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org>
> Sent: May 19, 2002 2:44 AM
> Subject: user-defined type conversion
> 
> 
> <snip>
>  The problem is that I am not allowed to use the name inches for the
> > conversion function because it is already used for the type name. It
> > seems that the name should be overloadable for both the type and the
> > conversion function. Is there any way around this?
> 
> No, because a type conversion has the same syntax as a function, so
> there's no way to "read the programmer's mind," as to what he intended.

Type conversion IS a function! It seems to me that I should be able to
do it the same way it is done for the built-in types (float, integer,
etc.). C++ allows that nicely.

> The ususl way to do this is to name the conversion function with a
> leading "To_", e.g., To_Inches.