Re: HELP... Need QUICK answer on package

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

bklungle says

<<What you say is true. However a beginner is very unlikely to be cognizant
of these esoterics. Very few other compilers have such switches hence they
are not obvious to someone just learning.
Sometimes you know too much and assume all others must also.
 >>


That is a good reason for not stating everything right away, it is NOT a good
reason for making false statements. You said that the name MUST match. This
is wrong and causes confusion. Instead you should say something like.
In normal default usage, it is most convenient if the name matches ....

So I am not saying that you have to make beginners cognizant of everything,
but the ability to use file names other than the default ones is by no means
"esoterics", it is easy to do, and many of our customers rely on this
capability.

On the other hand, I often run into people saying that one of the 
disadvantages of GNAT is that it requires fixed file names, and this
is false. That is why I think you should be careful not to make incorrect
statements.

Teaching always involves not revealing the whole truth right away, but as
far as possible it should avoid telling lies :-)

Robert Dewar
Ada Core Technologies