Re: Idiom for a class and an object in Ada

[Matthew Heaney <matthewjheaney@earthlink.net>]

Jeffrey Carter <spam@spam.com> writes:

> Ignoring the absence of any requirement that the objects be created
> dynamically, there are several ways:
> 
> declare
>     Instance : T renames Make (...);
> begin


We appear to be comparing apples and oranges.  The technique you show
above will only work (assuming the full of the type is limited) if the
object is allocated statically.  You obviously cannot use a function to
return an object whose type is limited (the full view, anyway), if the
object is dynamically allocated on the stack.  (Try it and see.)

My example was only intended to illustrate the technique of using a
factory function to allocate instances.  The indirection allows the
package to hide the decision about whether instances are allocated
statically (e.g. the flyweight pattern) or dynamically.

-Matt

BTW: It's H-E-A-N-E-Y, like the poet.