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,ac39a12d5faf5b14 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-04-22 15:57:17 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!uunet!sea.uu.net!sac.uu.net!dfw.uu.net!ash.uu.net!spool0900.news.uu.net!reader0901.news.uu.net!not-for-mail Sender: DB3L@CTWD0143 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Grace and Maps (was Re: Development process in the Ada community) References: <3CB46975.90408@snafu.de> <3CBAFFEE.2080708@snafu.de> <4519e058.0204171036.6f0a7394@posting.google.com> <3CBDD795.4060706@snafu.de> <4519e058.0204180800.44fac012@posting.google.com> <3CBF0341.8020406@mail.com> <5ee5b646.0204211857.2bf8b340@posting.google.com> From: David Bolen Date: 22 Apr 2002 18:58:57 -0400 Message-ID: Organization: Fitlinxx, Inc. - Stamford, CT X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.7/Emacs 20.6 NNTP-Posting-Host: 208.247.212.3 X-Trace: 1019516236 reader1.ash.ops.us.uu.net 2130 208.247.212.3 Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:22937 Date: 2002-04-22T18:58:57-04:00 List-Id: dewar@gnat.com (Robert Dewar) writes: > David Bolen wrote in message news:... > > > And from another language perspective, in Python, the fundamental > > built-in data structure types (aside from numerics) are sequences > > (lists/tuples) and mappings (dictionaries) and certainly in my > > experience they cover the vast majority of practical situations quite > > capably. > > Yes, and of course this is an old old idea, copied into Python from the > heritage of ABC, SETL and other precursors. Mappings are of course > powerful enough to represent anything (and sequences are just special > cases of mappings). That's been known since long before computers existed! Sorry, didn't mean that to come across as Python inventing the ideas, only to point out that they prove eminently useful in practice and without requiring the large number of variations as you might find in the STL. > But whether general mappings have a legitimate place in a low level > language (by SETL standards :-) like Ada is open for debate. And in > particular, having them as second class citizens without decent syntax > seems quite dubious. That's actually an interesting point. Certainly to my mind part of what makes lists/dictionaries more convenient (in Python) is the native syntax support for manipulating them. But barring an easy way to do that, at least having them available as clean libraries consistently available would, I think, go a long way. > So you might want to throw into the pot user defined subscripting > and slicing operations :-) Just have to figure out how to open up Ada's syntax first without a 10 year ISO effort :-) > My own view is that it is unlikely that any of this will get anywhere > near smooth enough and with enough consensus to be standardized. I think > people would better spend their effort implementing sample packages than > discussing at random on CLA :-) Ah, but brainstorming is cheap and simple for everyone to have an opinion :-) Sounds like there might be some coding in the works though from elsewhere in the thread. -- -- David -- /-----------------------------------------------------------------------\ \ David Bolen \ E-mail: db3l@fitlinxx.com / | FitLinxx, Inc. \ Phone: (203) 708-5192 | / 860 Canal Street, Stamford, CT 06902 \ Fax: (203) 316-5150 \ \-----------------------------------------------------------------------/