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From: 18k11tm001@sneakemail.com (Russ)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: user-defined type conversion
Date: 19 May 2002 20:25:22 -0700
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Jeffrey Carter <jrcarter@acm.org> wrote in message news:<3CE81644.D3B7CE25@acm.org>...
> Russ wrote:
> > 
> > type inches is new float;
> > type feet is new float;
> > 
> > function inches ( arg: feet ) return inches is
> >     begin
> >     return inches ( 12.0 * float(feet) );
> >     end inches;
> 
> Assuming you meant Arg rather than Feet in the return statement, it
> appears that this function attempts infinite recursion. This confusion
> among the multiple meanings of "inches" might be part of why the
> language does not allow this.

Yes, I meant "arg" rather than "feet", and I don't think it's an
infinite resursion. The "inches" function takes a "feet" argument,
whereas the call of "inches" within it takes a "float" argument.
That's two different functions.

I still don't see why I shouldn't be able to make my own type/unit
conversion that has the same simple syntax as the built-in type
conversions. Until I do, I consider it a minor deficiency of the
language.