Re: Question about "for X'Size use ..."

[Kilgallen@eisner.decus.org.nospam (Larry Kilgallen)]

In article <871ymk480x.fsf@deneb.enyo.de>, Florian Weimer <fw@deneb.enyo.de> writes:
> dewar@gnat.com (Robert Dewar) writes:
> 
>>> There is no effect because the stream operations operate on the base
>>> type, and you can't specify the size of a base type.
>>
>> This is incorrect, please see the latest AI on this topic
> 
> AI 270 is not a mere clarification, it changes the semantics of the
> Ada language.  I don't think these become part of the language
> automatically.
> 
> (I think that AI 270 is pointless.  Stream_Size won't give any
> additional portability unless the order of stream elements can be
> controlled, and the method of storing the sign, and the situations
> were the range of type neither is not symmetric around zero.)

I have not worked with streams, but was wondering if anyone had tried
using ASN.1 to achieve interoperability.  It solves endian problems
and the DER representation is rather firm about "only one way to express
something".

It seems to me that Ada folk should be willing to build on existing
standards, where suitable.