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=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=unavailable autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Received: by 2002:ac8:2b51:: with SMTP id 17mr35176198qtv.206.1560713644841; Sun, 16 Jun 2019 12:34:04 -0700 (PDT) X-Received: by 2002:aca:7293:: with SMTP id p141mr8066850oic.122.1560713644478; Sun, 16 Jun 2019 12:34:04 -0700 (PDT) Path: eternal-september.org!reader01.eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!news.gegeweb.eu!gegeweb.org!usenet-fr.net!proxad.net!feeder1-2.proxad.net!209.85.160.216.MISMATCH!j96no3353464qte.0!news-out.google.com!33ni387qtt.0!nntp.google.com!j96no3353456qte.0!postnews.google.com!glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: Sun, 16 Jun 2019 12:34:04 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <728c4668-8fa0-4a57-a502-2bf476fc3940@googlegroups.com> Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com; posting-host=47.185.234.171; posting-account=zwxLlwoAAAChLBU7oraRzNDnqQYkYbpo NNTP-Posting-Host: 47.185.234.171 References: <728c4668-8fa0-4a57-a502-2bf476fc3940@googlegroups.com> User-Agent: G2/1.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 Message-ID: <67a4abcc-6a33-40af-a3c4-6855b3bf8226@googlegroups.com> Subject: Re: Latest suggestion for 202x From: Optikos Injection-Date: Sun, 16 Jun 2019 19:34:04 +0000 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Xref: reader01.eternal-september.org comp.lang.ada:56649 Date: 2019-06-16T12:34:04-07:00 List-Id: On Saturday, June 15, 2019 at 6:59:41 PM UTC-5, Micah Waddoups wrote: > Following is my comment of appreciation AND my suggestion that is a very = basic and important level of support for Unicode. >=20 > Frankly, the former rules for directly specifying the contents of an arra= y were perfect, when you can only use parenthesis. Being able to use squar= e brackets to improve the readability of an array is brilliant because it i= s familiar to those who use other languages 1) Fortran and Ada are the mainstream languages that utilize parentheses ()= for array indexing, following the reason #3 below. 2) Algol-family languages (especially the widely-influential Algol60 and th= e otherwise-influential-on-Ada Algol68) utilize brackets [] for array index= ing. Nearly all other programming languages (which often are little more t= han Algol60 rejiggered a little bit) have followed Algol's lead on array in= dexing via bracket [] syntax. 3) Mathematics utilizes subscripts on variables for the customary equivalen= t of array indexing, although mathematics could be said to also permit mode= ling array indexing as a narrower application of the generalized function-p= arenthesis notation f(i), just like Ada emulates. Hence, Fortran & Ada are= more true to mathematics' f(i) notation for representing array indexing as= a function-invocation syntax. > and it does very little to change what is already part of the language de= finition (square brackets are already use in a way that does not conflict).= Therefore, it is not confusing, just new. >=20 > As for the other uses, I can't fully wrap my head around it, because I do= n't have time to study that part yet. >=20 > I have a suggestion, and I am sorry I haven't searched thoroughly to see = if someone has suggested this already, though I don't believe they have. U= nicode and UTF are supported very well, however, the support is simply limi= ted to the packages starting at Ada.Strings.UTF_Encoding. There is no conn= ection to Character_Set found in Maps. Since many lines of code are design= ed around the traditional Character_Set in Ada.Strings, the categories of U= TF should be conveyable as a (Wide_+)Character_Set so that the much existin= g code does not have to be fundamentally or completely redesigned in order = to use the support to Unicode. Please consider making Unicode categories a= vailable as character_sets (obviously omitting any characters from a catego= ry that are out of the range of the string, such as String, sans block draw= ing, vs. Wide_String, with block drawing). >=20 > If the character_set support for Unicode is not included in the pre-built= standard libraries, then it will be much elaboration and unnecessary code = to try to implement it correctly. >=20 > Does anybody agree or disagree with this very simple, but very impactful = suggestion?