Re: Ada 0x Wish List

[Keith Thompson <kst@cts.com>]

Fraser Wilson <blancolioni@blancolioni.org> writes:
> In article <3A87F362.3B2F6CEE@bton.ac.uk>, John English
> <je@bton.ac.uk> wrote:
> >Since we're wishing, here are a couple of very minor ones off the top
> >of my head that relate to Ada.Text_IO, which unfortunately I haven't
> >got time to draft proper requests for:
> 
> [ good ideas snipped ]
> 
> How about an image attribute that doesn't put a space in front of positive
> integers.  That space has always puzzled me -- it makes output of a series
> of positive integers easier, but as special cases go, that's pretty special.
> 
> Strikingly minor, but it's always bugged me.
> 
> Fraser.

<AOL>Me too.</AOL>

Better yet, how about an image attribute that takes some optional
extra parameters, depending on the type of the prefix: Width, Base,
Fore, Aft, Exp, etc.

The old Aonix, I mean Thomson, I mean Alsys, I mean TeleSoft compiler
provided a set of extended attributes like this (Extended_Image,
Extended_Value, etc.).  Not only were they useful in their own right,
they were used in implementing Integer_IO, Float_IO, etc.  (That was
actually their primary purpose.)  If they're provided in a new
revision of the language, rather than as an implementation-defined
extension, there's no need to use ugly names like Extended_Image.

-- 
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) kst@cts.com  <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst>
San Diego Supercomputer Center           <*>  <http://www.sdsc.edu/~kst>
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