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From: Kilgallen@SpamCop.net (Larry Kilgallen)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Why not using [] instead of () for array?
Date: 24 Feb 2002 19:48:54 -0600
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In article <9ff447f2.0202241719.446bf17b@posting.google.com>, byhoe@greenlime.com (Adrian Hoe) writes:

> "Why not use [] instead of () for array in Ada?"

I thought I had heard that certain keyboard limitations affected
the choice when Ada83 was being standardized.

> Two reasons for [] is preferred to ():
> 
> 1. More clarity, certainly leads to more readability.
> 
> 2. More distinguishable from functions parameters and leads to 1.

My understanding is that function parameters and array indices are
intentionally encoded with the same bracketing types to allow one
to be substituted for another in a subsequent version of a program.
A function might be more efficient for a very sparse array, even
though the logical construct is an array.