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 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,7e81a70d49e1dad0 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news1.google.com!news3.google.com!news.glorb.com!atl-c03.usenetserver.com!elnk-atl-nf1!newsfeed.earthlink.net!stamper.news.atl.earthlink.net!newsread3.news.atl.earthlink.net.POSTED!14bb18d8!not-for-mail Sender: mheaney@MHEANEYX200 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Adding functions to generic package References: <429891d3$1@news.broadpark.no> <4298b608$1@news.broadpark.no> <42998036$1@news.broadpark.no> <429a34bc$1@news.broadpark.no> <429a3514$1@news.broadpark.no> <429b7b62$1@news.broadpark.no> From: Matthew Heaney Message-ID: User-Agent: Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.3 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Thu, 02 Jun 2005 13:11:15 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.149.57.125 X-Complaints-To: abuse@earthlink.net X-Trace: newsread3.news.atl.earthlink.net 1117717875 24.149.57.125 (Thu, 02 Jun 2005 06:11:15 PDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 02 Jun 2005 06:11:15 PDT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:11214 Date: 2005-06-02T13:11:15+00:00 List-Id: Marius Amado Alves writes: > Is "exchanging values" not "manipulating the container?" No. Exchanging values implies that you're manipulating elements in the container without changing the container object itself. In the case of a list, the "container object itself" is a record comprising pointers to the head and foot of the internal linked list, and the number of elements. When you "manipulate the container object itself," that means you're changing the value of a head or foot pointer, or changing the length. That's why operation Swap_Links passes the container, since the head or foot can change. Swap does not pass the container, since it only exchanges element values. It doesn't manipulate the actual container object. -Matt