From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me
X-Spam-Level: 
X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,
	REPLYTO_WITHOUT_TO_CC autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4
Path: 
 eternal-september.org!reader01.eternal-september.org!reader02.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!mx02.eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!aioe.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: "Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: How to get this space away?
Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2015 14:32:35 +0200
Organization: cbb software GmbH
Message-ID: <g6o3ew8hqzqo$.fmmjgkio3p7f.dlg@40tude.net>
References: <bb2c2d5e-bd38-4598-ace9-1607a5bbf2cd@googlegroups.com>
 <mklak6$pqe$1@dont-email.me>
 <0b23f4af-9a55-4d1d-be90-f74b316a95cf@googlegroups.com>
 <mknp7j$4s1$1@dont-email.me> <mkp66o$h4n$1@dont-email.me>
Reply-To: mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de
NNTP-Posting-Host: enOx0b+nfqkc2k+TNpOejg.user.speranza.aioe.org
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-Complaints-To: abuse@aioe.org
User-Agent: 40tude_Dialog/2.0.15.1
X-Notice: Filtered by postfilter v. 0.8.2
Xref: news.eternal-september.org comp.lang.ada:26177
Date: 2015-06-04T14:32:35+02:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

On Thu, 04 Jun 2015 11:37:41 +0200, Georg Bauhaus wrote:

> Ada could stop supporting 'Image entirely, and instead create
> 
>    Annex F.4, Edited Output for Integer Types
> 
> If 'Image was intended for debugging purposes, It is quite obvious
> that 'Image keeps being misused. But:
> 
>   I/O is what we are payed for.
>   I/O is the raison d'être of programming.
>
> So, please, stop helping programmers evade proper I/O.

There are two use cases actually. Output is one, conversion is another.
There must be always four operations:

   Get, Value, Put, Image

Note also that there is a second important player here, the container type.
When you compare 'Image with output you do apples and oranges.

The container for 'Image is String. The container for Put is File_Type.
They are not same. Granted 'Image returning a new file would be useless,
but still. Output into a String is a hell how useful.

BTW, the container for the 'Output attribute is a stream, and you would
need one for Stream_Element_Array as well.

As you see it is much more rich than you wrote.

-- 
Regards,
Dmitry A. Kazakov
http://www.dmitry-kazakov.de