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From: 18k11tm001@sneakemail.com (Russ)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Is the Writing on the Wall for Ada?
Date: 14 Sep 2003 12:59:39 -0700
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Matthew Heaney <matthewjheaney@earthlink.net> wrote in message news:<u1xuja5zs.fsf@earthlink.net>...
> "Frank J. Lhota" <NOSPAM.FrankLho@rcn.com> writes:
> 
> > "Matthew Heaney" <matthewjheaney@earthlink.net> wrote in message
> > news:uvfrvanu3.fsf@earthlink.net...
> > > 18k11tm001@sneakemail.com (Russ) writes:
> > > What kind of "augmented" assignment operator did you have in mind?
> > 
> > I'm fairly sure he means the sort of thing where instead of writing
> > 
> >     Item(Number).Inventory.Count := Item(Number).Inventory.Count + 1;
> > 
> > you could write
> > 
> >     Item(Number).Inventory.Count +:= 1;
> 
> Well, here's what I do in this case:
> 
> declare
>    N : Integer renames Item (Number).Inventory.Count;
> begin
>    N := N + 1;
> end;

The fact that you need five lines, a new scope, and a new variable to
do what most programmers (C, C++, Java, Perl, and Python) can do in
one simple line should tell you something. If that's what Ada
programmers call "more readable," then I'll take the "less readable"
code, thanks.

I said in an earlier thread that augmented assignment operators should
be added for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. They
would be equivalent to the +=, -=, *=, and /= operators of C, C++,
Java, Perl, and Python. Since Ada already uses /=, I suggested that
:+, :-, :*, and :/ could perhaps be used. Others have suggested that
the three-character combinations could be used. I think two-character
combinations are preferable, but the three-character combinations
would be a big step forward too.