Re: Why constant components are not permitted ?

["Randy Brukardt" <randy@rrsoftware.com>]

"Niklas Holsti" <niklas.holsti@tidorum.invalid> wrote in message 
news:9ja2aiFla6U1@mid.individual.net...
...
> The original poster specified the constant value in the declaration of the 
> record *type*, not separately for each record *object*. This is what I do 
> not understand: what is the use of a value that is the same for all 
> objects in which it can appear?

One such use is in interfacing when some components always have fixed 
values. For instance, most record types in Win32 have a Size component that 
is always the same for a particular type declaration. It would be nice to 
declare that as a constant (since it cannot change).

But this need is so rare and unusual it hardly makes sense to add language 
support for it. The story would be different for a new from-scratch language 
design; the omission looks like a mistake in Ada and it surely would be more 
consistent to have it even if it is rarely used. But redoing the Standard 
and existing implementations needs a better reason than "more consistent but 
rarely used".

                                 Randy.