Re: "&" for array versus "&" for Strings

["Eric G. Miller" <egm2@jps-nospam.net>]

In <slrnaq5ehk.5c6.randhol+news@kiuk0152.chembio.ntnu.no>, Preben Randhol wrote:

> According to the ARM 4.5.3:
> 
>   3. The concatenation operators & are predefined for every nonlimited,
>      one-dimensional array type T with component type C. They have the
>      following specifications:
> 
>   4.      function "&"(Left : T; Right : T) return T
>           function "&"(Left : T; Right : C) return T
>           function "&"(Left : C; Right : T) return T
>           function "&"(Left : C; Right : C) return T
> 
> If I use this in this way:
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
> with Ada.Text_IO; use Ada.Text_IO;
> procedure Array_Test is
> 
>    type Name_Array is array (Positive range <>) of String (1..6);
>
>    procedure Print_Names (Names : Name_Array) is
>    begin
>       for No in Names'First .. Names'Last loop
>          Put_Line (Integer'Image(No) & ": " & Names (No));
>       end loop;
>    end;
> 
> begin
> 
>    Print_Names ("Ada   " & "Babbel");

ITYM,
     Print_Names (Name_Array'("Ada   ", "Babbel"));
  OR
     declare
         First : Name_Array := Name_Array'("Ada   ", "Babbel");
         Second: String(1..6) := "Odin  ";
     begin
         Print_Names(First & Second);
     end;

AFAIK, "Ada   " & "Babbel"  is type String(1..12) not Name_Array(1..2).

> end Array_Test;
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Then the result becomes:
> 
> 
>  1: A 2: d 3: a 4:   5:   6:   7: B 8: a 9: b 10: b 11: e 12: l
> Why is this happening.

It should even compile (didn't w/ gcc-3.1 (gnat)).