Re: Lack of formal syntax undermines Ada

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

John McCabe <john@nospam.assen.demon.co.uk.nospam> writes:

> As I understand it, that was deliberate; Ada's feature that functions
> may not have side-effects ...

Ada functions can have side effects.

>...means that whether Y is a function or an
> array is irrelevant to the user as long as the result is valid. It is
> also related to the separation of interface from implementation. Write
> the implementation as an array to start with, e.g. for unit test
> purposes, then it can be replaced with a function without having to
> change the client who uses this interface.

Right, that's the theory.  But it only works for some functions, and
some arrays.

- Bob