Re: Ada noob here! Is Ada widely used?

["Yannick Duchêne (Hibou57)" <yannick_duchene@yahoo.fr>]

Le Sat, 05 Jun 2010 18:02:36 +0200, Nasser M. Abbasi <nma@12000.org> a  
écrit:
> I meant complex type in ada is not an elementary type. as in
So this was indeed about to have Complex beside Integer and others.

To keep it simple : it is not elementary, because it can be built using  
more elementary things, so this is not really elementary. If something can  
be created using something else, it is not so much elementary.

May be the matter is efficiency so ? But as there is no low-level support  
for Complex in any architecture I know (I have never heard about a CPU  
with a Complex number instructions set), there is no way to formally  
assert it is less efficient as a composite type. And if ever a CPU support  
it, an implementation may always be able to get benefit from any dedicated  
CPU instructions in its implementation of Complex.

Note: I heard to say FORTRAN specifications of Real numbers is more  
relaxed than Ada ones and have less requirements. If there is ever an  
efficiency gap between FORTRAN and Ada, perhaps this can simply be  
explained by their different requirement with Real numbers ?

-- 
There is even better than a pragma Assert: a SPARK --# check.
--# check C and WhoKnowWhat and YouKnowWho;
--# assert Ada;
--  i.e. forget about previous premises which leads to conclusion
--  and start with new conclusion as premise.