Re: Why no exception hierarchy ?

[dewar@cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar)]

well I understand Jean may like to think that Ada still means Ada 83, but
that is not the way that the international standardization of a language
works.

The standardized language is called Ada, not Ada 95. The name "Ada 95" has
no official status, it is just a convenient handle for advertising, like
Fortran 77 (the official language name is simply Fortran).

So if you ask what is standard Ada, the only existing standards for Ada
are for the new version, which we call Ada 95. In ISO and ANSI terms, it
is not even valid to reference the old standards, because they have been
obsoleted by the new standards. This is how all language standards work.

My recomendation that Ada mean the new language has nothing to do with
me being involved with GNAT, it is merely in line with the proper usage
of both the ANSI and international standards.

Since this newsgroup is generally discussing latest technology, more and
more posts are concerned with the current Ada, rather than the now obsolete
version, and that trend will probably continue.

It is certainly a good idea to be clear on what version you mean. But if
people use Ada on its own, it is reasonable to suggest that we have a 
consistent understanding of what this means. Since it definitely means
the new version in ISO and ANSI speak, and we cannot change that usage,
we may as well be consistent with it.

Jean says there is no such language as Ada 83, true, in this same sense 
there is no such language as Ada 95. These are just informal usages. If
you get a copy of the ISO standard, it will not say Ada 95, it will just
say Ada. Note that the copies of RM 6.0 recently mailed out by the Ada 9X
project office are NOT official copies of the standard (you can tell by
the paragraph numbers, paragraph numbers are not allowed in ISO standards).

Probably the best recommendation is to clearly specify which version you
are talking about, using Ada 83 and Ada 95, since these are the common
informat designations we are used to. People using Ada on its own, assuming
that people will realize they mean Ada 83, will find themselves increasingly
misunderstood.