Re: Choice of variant record discriminant (design question)

[Jacob Sparre Andersen <sparre@nbi.dk>]

Randy Brukardt wrote:

> I have to wonder if the variant is worth it. There is not going to
> be any space savings,

Right.  But I hardly ever use variant records to save space.

> and in typical use, there isn't going to be much increase in safety,
> either.

Not that much, no.  But I prefer to let the code match the logic of
the problem.

> So I'd probably give up on the variant in this case, because I'd
> rather keep the aggregates (they are big help when a component needs
> to be added). But only you can weight that trade-off, because the
> relative value of the two options is something that depends on the
> components and the intended uses. (If the "empty" variant wasn't
> going to be empty in future version, for instance, the variant would
> make more sense.)

In this case, the null variant is most unlikely to end up containing
data later, so I can not use the argument that I may save space later
using this design.

If I didn't use that Ada allows me to encode the logic of my problem
in the source, couldn't I just as well use C or Fortran?

Thanks for the advice,

Jacob
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