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=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham
	autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4
X-Google-Thread: 103376,b30ef5c12f872cb8
X-Google-NewGroupId: yes
X-Google-Attributes: gida07f3367d7,domainid0,public,usenet
X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit
Received: by 10.204.129.8 with SMTP id m8mr7347602bks.5.1322539869805;
        Mon, 28 Nov 2011 20:11:09 -0800 (PST)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Path: 
 y3ni1370bkw.0!nntp.google.com!news2.google.com!volia.net!news2.volia.net!feed-A.news.volia.net!news.ecp.fr!news.jacob-sparre.dk!pnx.dk!jacob-sparre.dk!ada-dk.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: "Randy Brukardt" <randy@rrsoftware.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Why constant components are not permitted ?
Date: Mon, 28 Nov 2011 22:10:08 -0600
Organization: Jacob Sparre Andersen Research & Innovation
Message-ID: <jb1lv3$9l7$1@munin.nbi.dk>
References: <1856c00b-1994-406a-bbb3-73d93785099a@i6g2000vbe.googlegroups.com>
 <9j8sg4FfjuU1@mid.individual.net> <op.v5hxrxupule2fv@douda-yannick>
 <14efc07c-744c-4f9a-905b-b9e3ad353e55@cc2g2000vbb.googlegroups.com>
 <9ja2aiFla6U1@mid.individual.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: static-69-95-181-76.mad.choiceone.net
X-Trace: munin.nbi.dk 1322539811 9895 69.95.181.76 (29 Nov 2011 04:10:11 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: news@jacob-sparre.dk
NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2011 04:10:11 +0000 (UTC)
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.5931
X-RFC2646: Format=Flowed; Response
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.6157
Xref: news2.google.com comp.lang.ada:14712
Date: 2011-11-28T22:10:08-06:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

"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.