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From: Robert A Duff <bobduff@shell01.TheWorld.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: generics in Ada 83
Date: 21 Sep 2005 18:58:13 -0400
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<adaworks@sbcglobal.net> writes:

> "Robert A Duff" <bobduff@shell01.TheWorld.com> wrote in message
> news:wccbr2vpsh2.fsf@shell01.TheWorld.com...
> >
> > The Ada way makes it easier to understand what the contract _is_.
> >
> > On the other hand, the C++ way is more powerful.
> >
> Kinda like the difference between safety-matches and
> strike-anywhere matches.

Well, maybe, but I didn't really mean it that way.
I wrote the above to be a sort-of neutral comparison
of the Ada and C++ way of doing generics/templates.
Each has advantages.

The language designer in me wants to get the best of both.
Somehow...

>...   When I was a kid in rural
> Pennsylvania, we used to call strike-anywhere matches
> "barn burners."  Hmmmmm.  There is an analogy in
> there someplace.

I don't think one can buy strike-anywhere matches around here these
days.

- Bob