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=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,MAILING_LIST_MULTI, REPLYTO_WITHOUT_TO_CC autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,18f7f6e041b3e0bf X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-08-13 16:54:02 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!fr.usenet-edu.net!usenet-edu.net!enst.fr!not-for-mail From: "Robert C. Leif" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: RE: Information Systems Annex Date: Tue, 13 Aug 2002 16:53:07 -0700 Organization: ENST, France Sender: comp.lang.ada-admin@ada.eu.org Message-ID: Reply-To: comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org NNTP-Posting-Host: marvin.enst.fr Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: avanie.enst.fr 1029282842 87217 137.194.161.2 (13 Aug 2002 23:54:02 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@enst.fr NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 13 Aug 2002 23:54:02 +0000 (UTC) Return-Path: X-Envelope-From: rleif@rleif.com X-Envelope-To: X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook, Build 10.0.3416 Importance: Normal In-Reply-To: <5ee5b646.0208130017.32fa6f3e@posting.google.com> X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000 Errors-To: comp.lang.ada-admin@ada.eu.org X-BeenThere: comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.12 Precedence: bulk List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Id: comp.lang.ada mail<->news gateway List-Unsubscribe: , Errors-To: comp.lang.ada-admin@ada.eu.org X-BeenThere: comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:27992 Date: 2002-08-13T16:53:07-07:00 From: Bob Leif To: Robert Dewar I agree about COBOL providing strength; however, XML is and will be used for reporting and achieving purposes. It is one of the few subjects that Microsoft, IBM, Sun, and Adobe agree on. The XML Pattern element and its attributes could be considered a generalized 21st century picture clause. As for decimals, how do I do the following in Ada? 2*10**-x * 3*10**y = 6*10**(y-x) y and x being non-negative integers. If I have 10 or more decimal numbers with different exponents, I do not know how to assign the optimum exponent at run-time. It would be perfectly acceptable to have created a package of decimal types for the entire range. However, the elegant way would be to instantiate a generic at run-time, which is what one can presently do to size an array. The y-x formula for the value of the exponent is the one I was taught in high school for my slide-rule. -----Original Message----- From: comp.lang.ada-admin@ada.eu.org [mailto:comp.lang.ada-admin@ada.eu.org] On Behalf Of Robert Dewar Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2002 1:18 AM To: comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org Subject: Re: Information Systems Annex was RE: Dispatching and generics - language lawyer question "Robert C. Leif" wrote in message news:... > One problem with the > Information Systems Annex is that it was to some extent > based on COBOL, > particularly, the picture clause. To me that is a strength. After all, most financial software is still written in COBOL, and the picture clause in particular is one of the successful features of that language. I think the reason for the lack of use of Ada in the IS field has nothing whatever to do with technical features in fact. > I also believe that a way around the static requirement > for Ada decimals should be created. I have no idea what this means > I still would like to use the slide-rule formula to > calculate the exponent. Would a pragma To_Static be > possible? I have no guess as to what this might mean