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From: mheaney@ni.net (Matthew Heaney)
Subject: Re: Rules for Representation of Subtypes
Date: 1996/09/29
Date: 1996-09-29T00:00:00+00:00	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <mheaney-ya023180002909961041210001@news.ni.net> (raw)
In-Reply-To: DyGy7y.Hy5@world.std.com


In article <DyGy7y.Hy5@world.std.com>, bobduff@world.std.com (Robert A
Duff) wrote:

>In article <dewar.843920464@schonberg>,
>Robert Dewar <dewar@schonberg.cs.nyu.edu> wrote:
>I wrote:
>>It should."
>And Robert replied:
>>I am completely puzzled, you can specify the size of types and the size of
>>objects, what on earth woul it mean to specify Storage_Size for an array
>>(as opposed to specifying the type or object size for the array).
>
>The complaint was that Ada measures everythng in bits, and why can't you
>specify sizes in bytes, or storage units, or whatever, which is much
>more convenient in many cases.  That's what I was saying "It should" to.

And I agree, too!

   O'Storage_Units

makes a lot more sense than

   O'Size / System.Storage_Unit

Why not just save me the trouble, and make 'Storage_Units a predefined
language attribute?

I'd actually go further and make

   O'Bytes 

a predefined language attribute, which the compiler is free to reject if
Storage_Unit /= 8 on this machine.

I'm always a little nervous when I'm making an OS call that explicitly
calls for length in bytes, yet I have to express the length in terms of
Storage_Units.  I know that thinking in terms Storage_Units is more
portable, but there's nothing portable about 

   Starlet.QIO (
      ...
      P1 => O'Address,
      P2 => O'Size / System.Storage_Unit,
      ...

QIO  wants bytes, so why not let me say that directly?

>- Bob

matt

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Matthew Heaney
Software Development Consultant
mheaney@ni.net
(818) 985-1271




  parent reply	other threads:[~1996-09-29  0:00 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 61+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
1996-09-28  0:00 Rules for Representation of Subtypes Robert Dewar
1996-09-29  0:00 ` Robert A Duff
1996-09-29  0:00   ` Robert Dewar
1996-09-30  0:00     ` Art Schwarz
1996-09-30  0:00       ` Robert A Duff
1996-10-01  0:00       ` Larry Kilgallen
1996-10-01  0:00         ` Brian R. Hanson
1996-10-01  0:00         ` Robert A Duff
1996-09-29  0:00   ` Matthew Heaney [this message]
  -- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
1996-10-10  0:00 W. Wesley Groleau (Wes)
1996-10-10  0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1996-10-11  0:00 ` Ken Garlington
1996-10-03  0:00 Franco Mazzanti
1996-10-03  0:00 ` Robert A Duff
1996-10-02  0:00 Franco Mazzanti
1996-10-03  0:00 ` Robert A Duff
1996-09-28  0:00 Robert Dewar
1996-09-29  0:00 ` Robert A Duff
1996-09-29  0:00   ` Matthew Heaney
1996-09-28  0:00 Robert Dewar
1996-09-30  0:00 ` Keith Thompson
1996-09-22  0:00 Matthew Heaney
1996-09-23  0:00 ` David C. Hoos, Sr.
1996-09-23  0:00   ` Samuel T. Harris
1996-09-26  0:00     ` David C. Hoos, Sr.
1996-09-23  0:00   ` Robert A Duff
1996-09-24  0:00   ` Robert Dewar
1996-09-24  0:00   ` Robert Dewar
1996-09-26  0:00     ` Keith Thompson
1996-09-26  0:00       ` Matthew Heaney
1996-09-27  0:00         ` Robert Dewar
1996-09-27  0:00         ` Robert A Duff
1996-09-27  0:00           ` Robert Dewar
1996-09-27  0:00       ` Robert A Duff
1996-09-23  0:00 ` Robert A Duff
1996-09-24  0:00   ` Matthew Heaney
1996-09-26  0:00     ` Robert A Duff
1996-09-26  0:00       ` Larry Kilgallen
1996-09-27  0:00         ` Robert A Duff
1996-09-27  0:00           ` Mark A Biggar
1996-09-30  0:00             ` Robert A Duff
1996-10-01  0:00               ` Larry Kilgallen
1996-10-01  0:00                 ` Robert A Duff
1996-10-01  0:00                 ` Samuel Tardieu
1996-10-01  0:00                   ` Ken Garlington
1996-09-28  0:00           ` Larry Kilgallen
1996-09-29  0:00             ` Robert A Duff
1996-09-29  0:00               ` Larry Kilgallen
1996-09-29  0:00                 ` Matthew Heaney
1996-09-30  0:00                 ` Robert A Duff
1996-10-01  0:00                   ` Ken Garlington
1996-10-02  0:00                     ` Robert A Duff
1996-10-02  0:00                       ` Ken Garlington
1996-10-06  0:00                   ` Robert Dewar
1996-09-29  0:00               ` Matthew Heaney
1996-09-30  0:00                 ` Robert A Duff
1996-09-30  0:00                 ` Robert Dewar
1996-09-30  0:00                   ` Matthew Heaney
1996-10-03  0:00             ` Robert Dewar
1996-09-27  0:00       ` Matthew Heaney
1996-09-27  0:00         ` Robert A Duff
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