Re: Ada9X Features

[ok@goanna.cs.rmit.oz.au (Richard A. O'Keefe)]

mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman) writes:

>After all that, there are _two_ Pascal standards, one adopted by ISO
>which includes conformant array parameters, and one adopted by ANSI,
>which is the ISO one _minus_ conformant array parameters. The story
>going around was that the US compiler vendors kept it out of the US 
>standard.

There is a new standard.  ISO Pascal Extended.  It has _two_ mechanisms
for varying-size arrays:  the old conformant array parameters, and a
parametric type mechanism that looks uncannily like Ada.  The story I
heard was that the people who voted to keep conformant array parameters
out wanted to avoid conflicts with a possible future _better_ method,
which eventually arrived, but by then the perception of Pascal as too
crippled to use had sunk in.  I am aware of one ISO Pascal Extended
compiler in progress, but have not been able to locate any commercial
ones or plans for commercial ones, despite the "new" standard having
been out for years.

For what it's worth, the easiest way I can think of to implement "modern"
Pascal would be to build it on top of GNAT.  I'm not sure whether this
says more about Pascal Extended or about Ada.

-- 
The party that took Australia into Vietnam wants to smash the inner-city
yacht school and put a Grand Prix in its place.  They don't change.