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-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,7624df5e57d09688 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-06-11 11:13:21 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!hammer.uoregon.edu!skates!not-for-mail From: Stephen Leake Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: config files proposal Date: 11 Jun 2002 14:11:22 -0400 Organization: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (skates.gsfc.nasa.gov) Message-ID: References: <3CFA8E42.B7844253@san.rr.com> <4519e058.0206030656.34c424ff@posting.google.com> <4519e058.0206101058.18930b41@posting.google.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: anarres.gsfc.nasa.gov Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: skates.gsfc.nasa.gov 1023819519 7717 128.183.220.71 (11 Jun 2002 18:18:39 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@news.gsfc.nasa.gov NNTP-Posting-Date: 11 Jun 2002 18:18:39 GMT User-Agent: Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.2 Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:25753 Date: 2002-06-11T18:18:39+00:00 List-Id: dennison@telepath.com (Ted Dennison) writes: > Stephen Leake wrote in message > news:... > > I'd like to have a general "binary data - not human editable" data > > type. Maybe with an Ada Streams interface? > > An intersting idea. But if you have a separate data type for binary > data, don't you open the door for other data types, eg: Float, > Integer, Duration, Date/Time, etc? Well, we already have "approved" interfaces for scalar types. Yes, the user could abuse the binary interface to store a Date, rather than adding an appropriate interface for Calendar.Time. That's not bad as a quick work-around. My motto for this is "I need the power to shoot myself in the foot, and the discipline not too". -- -- Stephe