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From: Hyman Rosen <hyman.rosen@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: What's wrong with C++?
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2011 10:09:06 -0800 (PST)
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Date: 2011-02-17T10:09:06-08:00
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On 2/17/2011 12:46 PM, Georg Bauhaus wrote:
> Can I have
>     auto iterator i = ...;
> too, assuming iterator denotes a common iterator type?
> This will allow me to know what type i is without having
> to do the inference myself!

No, but you can say
     auto map_iterator = my_map.find("x");
so your variable names will guide your understanding.
You do that in Ada anyway, since the variable can be
used far away from its declaration.

> Ada.Containers' Cursor doesn't have a centrally
> declared interface, just like iterator; some have filed
> complaints about this.  Why is it that, seemingly, everybody
> in the compiler makers guild is so fond of omissions boiling
> down to obfuscation or bragging about inferential skills?
> Programming is neither selling small print nor omissions.
> Or, wait!  Is it?

C++ is very susceptible to horrible runaway type names because
it does have automatic instantiation of templates, and especially
in the presence of template metaprogramming. Without automatic
instantiation and partial specialization, Ada has rather less need
for this. (Which does not mean C++ is bad, just different.)

In C++, expression templates can be used to build up parse trees
from expressions rather than having them be evaluated, and the
type of such an expression is a nested cascaded monstrosity that
is essentially impossible for a human to write correctly. Such
results can be held by a pointer or reference to a base class,
but the compiler can just infer the right type without need for
that.