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: 103376,3a414836333dfef7
X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public
X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-01-10 14:08:57 PST
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Path: 
 archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.cwix.com!news.umass.edu!world!news
From: Robert A Duff <bobduff@shell01.TheWorld.com>
Subject: Re: Elaboration in GNAT
Sender: news@world.std.com (Mr Usenet Himself)
Message-ID: <wcc1ygx50tn.fsf@shell01.TheWorld.com>
Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2002 21:54:28 GMT
References: <1006952193.650930@edh3>
 <5ee5b646.0111281125.7e9fbca3@posting.google.com> <1010151875.216658@edh3>
 <u3bh1tiuppk9c7@corp.supernews.com>
 <5ee5b646.0201041650.208d0918@posting.google.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: shell01.theworld.com
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.7/Emacs 20.7
Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:18745
Date: 2002-01-10T21:54:28+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

dewar@gnat.com (Robert Dewar) writes:

> 4. If you are working with legacy code, which has complex
> elaboration requirements, it is *highly* likely that the'
> code has serious bugs in it -- namely it does not have all
> the pragma Elaborate statements that should be there.

True, but is it not also the case that these bugs are relatively
innocuous?  That is, if you forget your pragmas, then your program
usually blows up during elaboration (and you fix it), or else it doesn't
blow up (using this compiler).  That is, it's more of a *portability*
problem, than a problem of programs malfunctioning when users use them.

It sure is frustrating when you have to fiddle with those stupid
pragmas, but that is surely less costly than "real" bugs -- the ones
that find their way into the hands of your program's users.

Ideally, all elaboration problems would be detected at compile time (or
link time), and there would be no constraints on the structure of a
program due to elaboration-order issues.  Ada (even with GNAT's default
mode) does not achieve that, unfortunately.

- Bob