Re: Return by reference

[lutz@iks-jena.de (Lutz Donnerhacke)]

* Brian Rogoff wrote:
>In any case, in response to Lutz Donnerhack, who wonders why I might want

'Donnerhacke' (= 'thunder & hoe') please. Today exaktly seven guys with this
surname live on this earth. 'Donnerhack' is much more common (something like
'Smith' ;-)).

>to do such a thing, consider the problem of trying to write a printf like
>like formatting library in Ada. One interface (proposed in the programming
>FAQ at adahome) goes something like this
>
>    type Format_Type is limited private;
>
>    function  Format(S : in String) return Format_Type;
>    procedure Printf    (Fmt : in Format_Type);
>    function "&" (Fmt : in Format_Type; S : in String)    return Format_Type;
>    function "&" (Fmt : in Format_Type; I : in Integer)   return Format_Type;
>
>etc.
>
>I was going to use the "Rosen trick" to modify data in the Fmt each time 
>"&" is called. Unfortunately, that requires making the full view of
>Format_Type limited and you run into the problem I described. 
>
>Is there a cleaner way to implement that interface? 

To my first and ignorant view it should work fine with an unlimited type.
I implemented it for myself to check this view. Your will get it by E-Mail.