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=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,7f4d16c4ee371eb5 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: Robert A Duff Subject: Re: Why is it Called a Package? Date: 2000/04/07 Message-ID: #1/1 X-Deja-AN: 608029552 Sender: bobduff@world.std.com (Robert A Duff) References: <38DF7F38.8D656ABD@lmtas.lmco.com> <38DFB0BC.9FF72EFC@callnetuk.com> <87u2hq857e.fsf@deneb.cygnus.argh.org> <38E2A4A4.E59E997C@research.canon.com.au> Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 2000-04-07T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Brian Rogoff writes: > > On Thu, 30 Mar 2000, Robert A Duff wrote: > > Geoff Bull writes: > > > > > Isn't it a little bit late to be arguing about this? > > [notation for ".all"] > > So, your preference would be to replace ".all" by "^" and make > explicit dereferencing mandatory? I'm saying that if I were to design a language from scratch, that's what I'd do. Or, equivalently, that's what I wish the original designers of Ada 83 had done. I am certainly not advocating any change to Ada, Ada 0X, Ada 1X, or whatever. > > Only if you think Ada 95 is the final word in programming language > > design. ;-) > > No, that would be Ada 0X :-) ;-) > I think if the syntax were to be redone I'd like the issue of "()" versus > "[]" for array indexing to be reexamined. I don't think the syntax of Ada is going to be redone at this point; nor should it. We've discussed () vs [] here before, and I somewhat agree with you, but there are arguments both ways, and anyway I don't think it makes sense to change things. By the way, the () vs [] debate for array indexing has good arguments on both sides, but what about aggregates? It's really a shame that you can't write a zero-element or one-element positional aggregate in Ada, and the reason has to do with silly character-set issues. - Bob