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,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,c3a7c1845ec5caf9 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: mheaney@ni.net (Matthew Heaney) Subject: Re: Equality operator overloading in ADA 83 Date: 1997/04/26 Message-ID: #1/1 X-Deja-AN: 237627985 References: <01bc4e9b$ac0e7fa0$72041dc2@lightning> Organization: Estormza Software Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 1997-04-26T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: In article , dewar@merv.cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar) wrote: >In general, this principle is good, and I tried to obey it in RM95 -- if >something is undefined, then the RM should say so explicitly. Nothing >should be undefined just because the RM doesn't bother to define it. > >Anyway, this is why we have an AI on this point.>> Robert said: >I do not disagree that it is a good idea to pin down this particular >lack of specification, but I strongly disagree with the general principle >here. The idea of a package spec in Ada 83 or Ada 95 is that you are >free to implement the body anyway you like, and of course there are things >that are left open. FOr example, the paragraph above would require us to >say things like: > >a) it is implementation defined what the value of x'size is for the following >types (Address, Unbounded_String, ...) [pedantry snipped :-)] Robert, you're being a wee bit pedantic, don't you think? We simply need to specify the _external_ behavior of type Bounded_String, specifically the behavior of equality, under _all_ circumstances, including those times when predefined operators re-emerge. No one is suggesting we publically specify the any aspects of the _representation_ of Bounded_String. Perhaps the real issue is, What does "representation" mean? You assume equality is a representation issue, others assume equality is not a representation issue (ie is external behavior). So let's resolve _that_ ambiguity. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Matthew Heaney Software Development Consultant (818) 985-1271