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From: "Frank J. Lhota" <NOSPAM.lhota.adarose@verizon.net>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
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Subject: Re: status of Ada STL?
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Date: Tue, 18 Jun 2002 17:12:43 GMT
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Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:26268
Date: 2002-06-18T17:12:43+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

> I prefer :=, and if I could change C I would change = to := and modify
> all of the shorthand operators to look like Icon (:+= and the like).

Actually, the Icon augmented assignment operators look like this: "+:=".

I think that the Icon augmented assignment operators would be a worthwhile
addition to Ada, not so much for optimizations but for readability. A smart
compiler could probably optimize

    Whatchama_Callit.Thingy( Here ).Do_Hickey.Count :=
Whatchama_Callit.Thingy( Here ).Do_Hickey.Count  + 1;

but then you're requiring the reader to visually confirm that the expression
on the left of the assignment is the same as the expression on the left of
the "+". Granted, one solution would be to do a "renames" declaration, e.g.

    declare
        DH_Count : Natural renames Whatchama_Callit.Thingy(
Here ).Do_Hickey.Count;
    begin
        DH_Count := DH_Count + 1;
    end;

That's one solution, but wouldn't it be nicer to write this:

    Whatchama_Callit.Thingy( Here ).Do_Hickey.Count +:=
Whatchama_Callit.Thingy( Here ).Do_Hickey.Count;

If we use the Icon notation, then

    X /= Y   means  not ( X = Y )
    X /:= Y  means  X := X / Y

resolving the issue regarding the current use of the "/=" symbol.