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: 103376,46295b30ce38047c
X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public
X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-12-04 22:18:03 PST
Path: 
 archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!nntp.cs.ubc.ca!freenix!enst.fr!not-for-mail
From: "Grein, Christoph" <christoph.grein@eurocopter.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Ada Configuration API for Unix and Windows
Date: Thu, 5 Dec 2002 07:10:08 +0100 (MET)
Organization: ENST, France
Sender: comp.lang.ada-admin@ada.eu.org
Message-ID: <mailman.1039069081.6868.comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org>
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
X-Trace: avanie.enst.fr 1039069082 12455 137.194.161.2 (5 Dec 2002 06:18:02
 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: usenet@enst.fr
NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 5 Dec 2002 06:18:02 +0000 (UTC)
Return-Path: <christoph.grein@eurocopter.com>
X-Authentication-Warning: mail.eurocopter.com: uucp set sender to
 <christoph.grein@eurocopter.com> using -f
Content-MD5: 54V0ey50NzgFugI6euOeKA==
X-Mailer: dtmail 1.2.1 CDE Version 1.2.1 SunOS 5.6 sun4u sparc 
Errors-To: comp.lang.ada-admin@ada.eu.org
X-BeenThere: comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.13
Precedence: bulk
X-Reply-To: "Grein, Christoph" <christoph.grein@eurocopter.com>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://ada.eu.org/mailman/listinfo/comp.lang.ada>,
	<mailto:comp.lang.ada-request@ada.eu.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Id: comp.lang.ada mail<->news gateway <comp.lang.ada.ada.eu.org>
List-Post: <mailto:comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org>
List-Help: <mailto:comp.lang.ada-request@ada.eu.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <http://ada.eu.org/mailman/listinfo/comp.lang.ada>,
	<mailto:comp.lang.ada-request@ada.eu.org?subject=subscribe>
Errors-To: comp.lang.ada-admin@ada.eu.org
X-BeenThere: comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org
Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:31453
Date: 2002-12-05T07:10:08+01:00

> > >   Put(reg,To_Key("A_Key"),"A Value"); -- A Key in the default section
> > >   Why is the conversion To_Key necessary? Surely it could be done by
> > > Put?
> > 
> > I have decided to introduce special types for sections and values,
> > so that the user can not accidentialy permute sections and keys or
> > other unbounded strings, specialy when variables are used (and not
> > simple string literals like in the example).
> 
> That seems to make sense at first, but just gets in the way in the
> long run. A string is a string. Named association is a better
> solution. 

declare
  -- type T is new String;  or alternatively
  type T is array (Positive range <>) of Character;
  procedure P (L: T; R: String) is
  begin
    null;
  end P;
begin
  P ("AAA", "BBB");      -- legal
  P (T'("AAA"), "BBB");  -- legal
  P (T("AAA"), "BBB");   -- illegal (type of "AAA" can not be determined)
end;

So again: Why is the conversion necessary?