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From: =?utf-8?Q?Yannick_Duch=C3=AAne_=28Hibou57?=
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 <yannick_duchene@yahoo.fr>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Convention for naming of packages
Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:07:19 +0100
Organization: Ada @ Home
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Date: 2012-02-10T16:07:19+01:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

Le Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:39:51 +0100, Jeffrey Carter  =

<spam.jrcarter.not@spam.not.acm.org> a =C3=A9crit:
> The plural is used a lot in the standard library (Ada.Strings,  =

> Ada.Containers).
I had this in minde, though this was not common enough. After I read you=
  =

yesterday, I changed my mind and feel at rest with the plural now.

> The present participle is sometimes useful (Widget_Handling,  =

> Town_Marshalling).
Noted.

> I've also seen instances where _Management was meaningful and solved  =

> this kind of conflict.
Idem.


Will go for plural so.


Now I am seeking for something even more difficult: conflict between  =

function names and object names. This can be solved using prefixed  =

notation, but I want to avoid it to not bloat source too much. A too lon=
g  =

full name is not readable and can just make people think Ada is  =

definitively over=E2=80=91wordy (as J.P. Rosen explained in a paper, peo=
ple tends  =

to keep in mind bad points first about Ada).

To be honest, this conflict typically occurs when I want a local constan=
t  =

to hold the value returned by a function, to avoid invocation of this  =

function multiple time. That's a common idiom, although I feel this may =
be  =

based on wrong assumptions about compiler efficiency, while not the only=
  =

one reason. I feel it's often good to substitute a single name to a whol=
e  =

expression.

A quick example.


    function Object (Param : Param_Type) return Object_Type;

    procedure Scan is
       Object : constant Object_Type :=3D Object (Param);
       -- Or alternatively: =E2=80=9CObject : constant Object_Type renam=
es Object  =

(Param);=E2=80=9D
    begin
       for I in Index_Type loop
          ... Object ...
          -- Instead of ... Object (Param) ...
       end loop;
    end;

Object conflict with Object. I can use prefix and have

    Object : constant Object_Type :=3D Repository_Package.Object (Param)=
;

instead of

    Object : constant Object_Type :=3D Object (Param);


But I would like to avoid the Repository_Package prefix for the previous=
ly  =

given reasons. I remember I knew a language (cannot remember which one) =
 =

which was fine with this, as this language considered Object to not  =

already be defined when it was encountering Object (Param).

Thus

    Object : constant Object_Type :=3D Object (Param);

was defining Object with an initial value and right after hiding the  =

Object function.

The problem does not occurs with either record type (as members are all =
 =

prefixed) and subprogram parameters, as these are assigned by the caller=
.  =

The latter may be an idea, so this could be a solution:


    procedure Scan is
       procedure Scan (Object : in Object_Type) is
       begin
          for I in Index_Type loop
             ... Object ...
             -- Instead of ... Object (Param) ...
          end loop;
       end,
    begin
       Scan (Object (Param));
    end;

I don't know what to think about it, looks too much like a big trick in =
 =

Ada source and this is even much longer than using the previous prefix  =

notation along with a local constant.

What do you feel about this?


-- =

=E2=80=9CSyntactic sugar causes cancer of the semi-colons.=E2=80=9D [1]
=E2=80=9CStructured Programming supports the law of the excluded muddle.=
=E2=80=9D [1]
[1]: Epigrams on Programming =E2=80=94 Alan J. =E2=80=94 P. Yale Univers=
ity