Re: Beginner's questions

[Matthew Heaney <matthew_heaney@acm.org>]

Andreas Winckler <andreas.winckler@frqnet.de> writes:
> For programmers used to Pascal the strings in Ada can be really
> irritating, at least it was for me. I usually use unbounded strings
> which are comparable to the strings in Pascal.

A discriminated record is closer to the Pascal approach.  

I don't recommend using a heap-based solution (type Unbounded_String)
unless you have a compelling need to.

Jean-Pierre Rosen has written a nice variable-length string package:

(start of excerpt from documentation)
What package Variable_Length does

This package provides a simple "variable length string" type. It is
useful when you just want to store strings whose maximum length is known
beforehand. It provides operations that are consistent with those
defined in the Bounded_String and Unbounded_String packages.
(end of excerpt from documentation)

You can get it from the Adalog web page:

<http://perso.wanadoo.fr/adalog/compo2.htm>