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From: "G.B." <bauhaus@notmyhomepage.invalid>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: State of the compiler market
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2017 19:23:02 +0200
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Date: 2017-06-29T19:23:02+02:00
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On 29.06.17 16:47, Lucretia wrote:
> The current string mess. Remove it all and start again.

While at removing the string mess, remove strings altogether!

Strings' use cases are almost always just UI related:
be it an exception message, compiler diagnostic, an alert
box, and so forth: in the end, strings are almost always at
the human interface level. (Note that hashed keys need not
be strings.)  UI in just strings?

The presence of bare strings in programs is only a legacy and
reminiscent of

   (a) lack of typed data,
   (b) our habits that move towards ADTs slowly.

E.g., a notion of Message conveys not just an array of characters.
Microformats of text exist only because lenient management is
tolerant of stuff that "tends to work in 90% of the cases",
and "everyone else does it like this, plus we're not disruptors".
IT business could use that tolerance of bare strings
in more meaningful IT situations, those that promise higher
ROI than messing about strings.

Note that this posting is demonstrably not just a string.