Re: Containers - nontrivial element access

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

Maciej Sobczak <see.my.homepage@gmail.com> writes:

> On 3 Pa , 02:20, "Jeffrey R. Carter"
> <spam.jrcarter....@acm.nospam.org> wrote:
>
>> But since C/++ uses reference semantics, while Ada uses value semantics,
>> this kind of mess is needed to get something in the C/++ spirit.
>
> Let's leave C++ aside then.
>
> Imagine I haven an *array* of Person(s) and I do this:
>
> Swap (People (X).Salary, People (Y).Salary);
>
> This is Ada.
>
> (is it value semantics for you, btw?)
>
> Now I want to do the same with vector.

I agree with you on this point.  Vector and array are basically the same
thing (except vectors can grow), and it's annoying that you have to use
different syntax to deal with them.

In Ada, "array" is built in, and has all kinds of cool features
(aggregates, with full-coverage checking, for example).
It's annoying that vectors can't have all of those features.

- Bob