Re: How to get Ada to ?cross the chasm??

[Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid>]

"Randy Brukardt" <randy@rrsoftware.com> writes:
> Surely, and you can use the tree container to represent such a tree.

Is that something like C++ std::shared_ptr that uses reference counting?
Ok, that would work, but is not too much different from GC, has thread
safety issues, etc.

> And similarly in the original code, presuming that it is fast
> enough. The compiler does any needed memory managment.

That program is a huge static data structure embedded in Ada code, so
you have to recompile the whole thing to add a new job title!  You call
that systems software?! ;-)

> The cost of doing that is rarely an issue (see the many threads here
> on premature optimization).

The cost of GC is rarely an issue either, so resisting using it is also
a premature optimization, of course ;).

I do find in C++ the alternative to GC is often copying data around all
over the place, which is what that program does.  That can get
expensive.  If Alice is deep enough in the bureaucracy, her job title
might be a megabyte long.  And if it's copied into the job titles of her
1000s of direct and indirect assistants, that's GB's of memory right
there instead of a few KB of pointers.