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=-2.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,MAILING_LIST_MULTI autolearn=unavailable autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,54889de51045a215 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-10-15 16:12:44 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news2.google.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.stueberl.de!proxad.net!usenet-fr.net!enst.fr!melchior!cuivre.fr.eu.org!melchior.frmug.org!not-for-mail From: "Alexandre E. Kopilovitch" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: += in ada Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2003 03:09:38 +0400 (MSD) Organization: Cuivre, Argent, Or Message-ID: References: <1066244017.39486@master.nyc.kbcfp.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: lovelace.ada-france.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: melchior.cuivre.fr.eu.org 1066259444 20299 80.67.180.195 (15 Oct 2003 23:10:44 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@melchior.cuivre.fr.eu.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2003 23:10:44 +0000 (UTC) To: comp.lang.ada@ada-france.org Return-Path: In-Reply-To: <1066244017.39486@master.nyc.kbcfp.com>; from Hyman Rosen at Wed, 15 Oct 2003 14:53:36 -0400 X-Mailer: Mail/@ [v2.44 MSDOS] X-Virus-Scanned: by amavisd-new-20030616-p5 (Debian) at ada-france.org X-BeenThere: comp.lang.ada@ada-france.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.2 Precedence: list List-Id: Gateway to the comp.lang.ada Usenet newsgroup List-Unsubscribe: , List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:926 Date: 2003-10-16T03:09:38+04:00 Hyman Rosen wrote: > ... what the programmer wants is to add a value to > a variable. If I'm keeping a running total, I want to say > "add this item to the total" not "compute the sum of the > current total and this item, and replace the current total > with the new total". That's why COBOL had "ADD A TO B." Yes, and that's why Pascal (at least Object Pascal/Delphi) has built-in procedures Inc and Dec. Ada differs only in that it does not see this abstraction as important as Pascal (or C) does and therefore Ada does not make it built-in. After all, Ada always was intented for professional use, not for educational use (as Pascal certainly does... and even C to some degree), so Ada designers may assume that there is no need to include in the language standard such a simple and obvious abstraction, which every professional can so easily device for himself, and which hardly deserves standartization. Alexander Kopilovitch aek@vib.usr.pu.ru Saint-Petersburg Russia