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=0.6 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,TO_NO_BRKTS_FROM_MSSP
	autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4
X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit
X-Google-Thread: 103376,8eff44ec1bcf8433
X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public
X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-10-24 06:55:01 PST
Path: 
 archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!out.nntp.be!propagator-SanJose!in.nntp.be!newsranger.com!www.newsranger.com!not-for-mail
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
From: Ted Dennison<dennison@telepath.com>
References: <9qctpn$lil$1@news.huji.ac.il>
 <3nCy7.29644$ev2.35903@www.newsranger.com> <9qfgla$7sb$3@news.huji.ac.il>
 <x7v4royhk79.fsf@smaug.pushface.org> <9qnflg$pm$1@news.huji.ac.il>
 <3BCF57C8.DE99D9C@boeing.com> <un12nod47.fsf@gsfc.nasa.gov>
 <3BD0E523.E23FB134@acm.org> <ug08bgnu2.fsf@gsfc.nasa.gov>
 <3BD4D157.C96BBAAD@acm.org> <%geB7.39480$ev2.46195@www.newsranger.com>
 <3BD626BF.4CAEAF69@acm.org>
Subject: Re: Container reqs
Message-ID: <lKzB7.41007$ev2.48168@www.newsranger.com>
X-Abuse-Info: When contacting newsranger.com regarding abuse please
X-Abuse-Info: forward the entire news article including headers or
X-Abuse-Info: else we will not be able to process your request
X-Complaints-To: abuse@newsranger.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2001 09:54:25 EDT
Organization: http://www.newsranger.com
Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2001 13:54:25 GMT
Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:15122
Date: 2001-10-24T13:54:25+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

In article <3BD626BF.4CAEAF69@acm.org>, Jeffrey Carter says...
>
>Ted Dennison wrote:
>> 
>> It probably wouldn't prove too much of a hardship in Ada to limit the 
>> component library to non-limited definite types.
>
>Most of the data structures in the PragmAda Reusable Components can 
>handle any type the client can define an Assign procedure for. That 
>includes many useful limited types, such as most of the data structures.

True. But when you take that approach you have to do one of two things:

1) Force *every* user, including the >90% using only non-limited definite types,
to create an "assign" procedure so that they can instantiate the container
package. One of my personal no-no's of design is forcing extra work of this
magnitude on every user to support an exceptional case.

2) Create separate versions of the same component for use with
limited/indefinite types. 


I see that you chose 1, and tried to mitigate the effort with another helper
generic. But again, all this is complicating things significantly for the
benifit of a small percentage of users.

Is there anyone out there who really thinks that being able to handle such types
is a requirement, given that you can still handle pointers to them, and doing so
would complicate the facility for everyone?

---
T.E.D.    homepage   - http://www.telepath.com/dennison/Ted/TED.html

No trees were killed in the sending of this message. 
However a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.