Re: Elaborate_All on child package

[Robert A Duff <bobduff@shell01.TheWorld.com>]

Niklas Holsti <niklas.holsti@tidorum.invalid> writes:

> Robert A Duff wrote:
>
>> Right.  The visibility rules in context clauses are special.
>> They have to be, because the context clause are determining what's
>> visible elsewhere.  Why Jean Ichbiah chose this exact design,
>> I don't know.  I would have put the 'with' clauses inside the
>> package.
>
> If the 'with' clauses would be inside the package, you would have to
> change also the location of the generic formals for generic packages,
> wouldn't you? The declarations of the formals should be able to refer to
> entities in 'withed' packages.

You wouldn't have to, but you'd want to.

Note that Ada has always allowed forward references:

generic
   type Formal_Type is (<>);
   with procedure P (X : My_Generic.Formal_Type);  <-- This is legal!
package My_Generic is
end My_Generic;

which is a bit strange, given that Ada doesn't allow forward references
in general.

Anyway, generic formal parameters are analogous to a procedure's formal
parameters -- in both cases, they ought to come after the name of the
thing being declared.

- Bob