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From: moi <findlaybill@blueyonder.co.uk>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Parameterised 'Image Attributes
Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2023 17:49:41 +0100
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On 19/08/2023 10:14, J-P. Rosen wrote:
> Le 18/08/2023 à 10:25, Luke A. Guest a écrit :
>> On 18/08/2023 08:18, Rod Kay wrote:
>>> Hello.all,
>>>     There has been some recent discussion on #ada irc regarding 
>>> formatted output.
>>>
>>>     Would it be possible/desirable to allow the 'Image attribute to 
>>> have formatting parameters ? Something along the lines of ...
>>>
>>>     put_Line (some_Integer'Image (Width => 5, Padding => '0'));
>>>
>>> ... and similar 'Image attribute parameters for other types.
>>>
>>>     If the parameters have defaults, then there should not be any 
>>> backwards compatibility issues (I think).
>>
>> I wanted them for ages, but there was a conversation ages ago where 
>> someone on here said attributes were for "debugging only," yet that's 
>> not what the arm says.
>>
> The intent of the 'Image attribute is to have a quick representation, 
> mainly for debugging purposes. If you want nice formatted output, use 
> the Put procedure on String from Text_IO.
> 

My code uses 'Image heavily, because it is usually the neatest and the
clearest way to format many strings that mingle words and numbers.

I sometimes have to pass the result of 'Image to a function that
implements the kind of functionality people are asking for,
and it would be even neater and clearer if I could get that with
parameters to 'Image itself.

None of that output has anything to do with debugging.

-- 
Bill F.