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From: Simon Wright <simon@pushface.org>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: 64-bit integers in Ada
Date: 11 Aug 2002 16:32:44 +0100
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Date: 2002-08-11T16:32:44+01:00
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Richard Riehle <richard@adaworks.com> writes:

> Robert Dewar wrote:
> 
> > First. I trust we all agree that new Ada code should
> > almost NEVER EVER use type Integer, except as the
> > index of the String type.
> 
> Robert,
> 
> We are in full agreement on all of the points you made.
> 
> The only two uses of predefined type Integer are its
> requirement in the predefined String, and for occasional
> pedagogic purposes, and the latter use often leads to
> more trouble than it is worth.

Well, I think that when you are writing libraries you may find that
Integer, Natural and Positive have their uses. For example,

   package Tables is

      type Item_Array is array (Positive range <>) of Items.Item_Container;
      type Value_Array is array (Positive range <>) of Values.Value_Container;

      type Table (Number_Of_Buckets : Positive) is record
         Items : Item_Array (1 .. Number_Of_Buckets);
         Values : Value_Array (1 .. Number_Of_Buckets);
         Size : Natural := 0;
      end record;

.. it seems pointless to force the user to provide yet another
parameter to specify the type for Number_Of_Buckets.

I note also that GNAT.Dynamic_Tables has

   generic
      type Table_Component_Type is private;
      type Table_Index_Type     is range <>;

      Table_Low_Bound : Table_Index_Type;
      Table_Initial   : Positive;
      Table_Increment : Natural;

   package GNAT.Dynamic_Tables is