Re: generic function and overloading

["Dr. Adrian Wrigley" <amtw@linuxchip.demon.co.uk.uk.uk>]

On Thu, 18 Oct 2007 00:28:38 -0700, eliben wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> I have a few "hardware" types, for example uint16 and uint32. And I
> want to write a functions that will set or clear bits of such types.
> For example:
> 
> function Bit_Set(word: uint16; bitn: natural) return uint16;
> 
> function Bit_Set(word: uint16; bitn: natural) return uint16 is
>   mask: uint16 := 2**bitn;
> begin
>   return word or mask;
> end Bit_Set;

Have you checked that packed arrays of booleans aren't
suitable?  usually you need type like this for interfacing
with other languages (eg C) - but then you use the types
in the appropriate Interfaces packages.  And you might
use such a type when writing directly to a hardware
register on a particular peripheral or bus.  But overall
its very rare that you need to write the code you're asking for!
--
Adrian