Re: pointer questions

["Jeffrey R. Carter" <spam@spam.com>]

Robert A Duff wrote:

> An abstract syntax tree for Ada will have upwards of a hundred different
> tagged types (or variants, if you go the variant record route).  And you
> need access types all over the place, because these things are highly
> recursive.

Sounds as if compilers need access types much more than many other kinds of 
programs.

> You and I might have to wait a long time for that, given that I have to
> make a living.  I can do so making compilers and other tools, but since
> the Ada 9X project, nobody seems interested in paying me to do language
> design.  Sigh.  For now, it's a hobby.

Sounds like a fun hobby. I've thought about trying to design a language (which I 
would call NINA: NINA Is Not Ada), but every time someone posts a "why not add 
this feature" question and I think about what it would entail, LLs like you come 
up with several factors I hadn't thought of. So it seems I shouldn't be in the 
language design business anytime soon.

> I don't even know what to call it.  Not "Duff", for sure.  ;-)

OK. I'll look forward to hearing more about Not "Duff" :)

> Just saying "You hardly ever need pointers in Ada" is misleading,
> IMHO.

Perhaps. To a certain extent, I intend it to provoke, so the person thinks about 
the possibility that Ada is significantly different from C, and he's not going 
to learn Ada by trying to do things the same way as in C.

-- 
Jeff Carter
"Blessed are they who convert their neighbors'
oxen, for they shall inhibit their girth."
Monty Python's Life of Brian
83