Zero length Objects

["Robert C. Leif" <rleif@rleif.com>]

I am trying to create a means to report the value of experimental
parameters.  I would like to store only those parameters that I have
selected.  Since thanks to Robert I. Eachus, I am using a variant record, I
can set the parameter to null, which is presently stored as 16 bits.  I
created an empty type; please see the small main procedure below. I have not
been able to have the size attribute work directly on null.

with Ada.Text_Io;
procedure Empty_Pkg is 
   package T_Io renames Ada.Text_Io;
   type Empty_Type is 
         (Empty); 
   for Empty_Type'Size use 0;
   Empty_Var : Empty_Type;  
begin
   T_Io.Put_Line("The size of empty is " & Integer'Image(Empty_Var'Size));

end Empty_Pkg;

This produced: The size of empty is 8

Thank you.
Bob Leif