Re: GNAT: Performance of String functions

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

Tarjei said

<<VAX Pascal passes strings by descriptors. The string pointed to by
descriptor is of type counted string. A counted string has a maximum
size, an actual size and the string itself. I'm not sure anymore if the
descriptor contains the maximum size of the string or if the programmer
have to keep track of this.

This means that comparing Ada bounded strings and VAX Pascal strings
compares two different ways of doing things. Each time you change the
size of an Ada bounded string there can be serious overhead.
>>

So, clearly Vax Pascal strings are to be compared with bounded strings,
not with unbounded strings, and presumably there is no automatic 
finalization involved.

I am not sure what your "serious" overhead message is about, makes no
sense to me, but perhaps it is just not clear.