Re: Question about base types

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

Matthew Heany said

<<I was wondering about that. I've only been a GNAT user for a week, and I
was a little surprised that the error messages didn't include an RM
reference automatically.  I figured there was some switch I could turn on
to get the RM references, too.

Compiling a program tests one's knowledge of the language.  From
time-to-time I'll do something I'm not sure is legal (more true now with my
new compiler), to see if it compiles.  When I get an error message, I like
to haul out the RM and look it up, to see the rule actually written on the
page.

Admittedly, reading the RM is at times a painful process, but to really
understand the language, you have know how to navigate the RM.

So yeah, I think that adding the switch

-gnatmatt

to display messages for "expert" users would be a swell idea. ;)
>>


Generally we find RM references pretty useless except to a rather small
group of people who can successfully read the RM. If you can't understand
the message in the first place, most people will not be enlightened by
an RM reference, except in certain unusual cases. It is interesting that
the suggestion to add RM references almost always comes from people who
are pretty much Ada experts, and this is NOT the class of people that
GNAT messages are aimed at!

And no, there is no thought at all of having a switch to display
different messages. The thought is a separate utility program.