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=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,FREEMAIL_FROM autolearn=unavailable autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Path: eternal-september.org!reader01.eternal-september.org!reader02.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!aioe.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: =?utf-8?Q?Yannick_Duch=C3=AAne_=28Hibou57?= =?utf-8?Q?=29?= Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Vocabulary matter: Component vs Element vs Item Date: Fri, 26 Jul 2013 21:29:27 +0200 Organization: Ada @ Home Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: ds8m8HfAx594C0h4s/JFyA.user.speranza.aioe.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed; delsp=yes Content-Transfer-Encoding: Quoted-Printable X-Complaints-To: abuse@aioe.org User-Agent: Opera Mail/12.16 (Linux) X-Notice: Filtered by postfilter v. 0.8.2 Xref: news.eternal-september.org comp.lang.ada:16531 Date: 2013-07-26T21:29:27+02:00 List-Id: Le Fri, 26 Jul 2013 20:42:21 +0200, Yannick Duch=C3=AAne (Hibou57) = a =C3=A9crit: > Would be nice if there were some explanation somewhere, about how the = RM = > choose to assign their signification to Item and Element. Whether the = = > thing is named from the point of view of whom send or whom receive the= = > thing, is probably important too. You hardly follow a convention if yo= u = > don't understand it :-D What about this one, which is fortunately compatible with choice made fo= r = the Ada standard containers: * Component, Element and Item, are all constituents of some kind of aggregate. * A Component is a big Element, an Element is a more rudimentary thing than a Component. * A component may be made of Elements. An Element is not said to be made of Components (there may be rare exceptions). An Element may still be made of Elements. * An Item is not a kind of thing, but a status. * An Item is an Element or Component of particular attention or which receive some kind of focus at some or time. * The type of an Item is either that of an Element or a Component. It's compatible with: * XML wordings * wording used to talk about menus and UIs * Ada standard containers naming convention * UML wording * Current and obsolete meaning of Item * Close meanings of Element and Component Above all, this would explain why for Ada containers, an Item argument i= s = of an Element_Type: it's an Element, which receive a particular attentio= n = at some point. So I was wrong with my idea of defining an Item_Type first and then a = subtype of it named Element_Type. There is just an Element_Type, whose = instances may be generically named either Element or Item. -- = =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