Re: ASCL a doomed idea?

["Nick Roberts" <nickroberts@adaos.worldonline.co.uk>]

"Jeffrey Carter" <jrcarter@acm.org> wrote in message
news:3C13D980.748CCCDA@acm.org...

> This is a significant problem with NJR5.

I need another pantomime chorus, please:

>Lists are not strings

[all together] "Oh yes they are!"

> and use different nomenclature.

[all together] "Oh no they don't!"

Or, rather, a string is a kind of list (do you really have a problem with
that concept?), and what the heck is the problem with using the same
nomenclature for both (as far as possible) to help avoid confusing the poor
Ada programmer? This isn't an ivory tower academic exercise.

> > (3) the closed (passive?) iterator included in both JC01 and TED 1.3 is
> > inferior to the open, container-wide iterator (I have already outlined,
> > haven't I?) to be added to my proposal, in that it does not permit
> > restarting within the client procedure, and it does not permit writing
at
> > all.
>
> An iterator procedure is the only thing that is an iterator; anything
> else called an iterator is misnamed.

According to which science? On which planet, Jeff? Are you serious?

> I don't know what you mean by
> "writing" in this context. The iterator in JC01 allows updating the
> value stored at the current position being acted upon. Insertion and
> deletion should take place outside an iterator.

Like a file Jeff, the architypal 'container'. You read from it, you write
into it.

I'd like to hear what TED says, but I am seriously thinking of just going it
alone now. I don't have time for sillyness. In fact, I have some fairly
specific needs of my own as regards a container suite (for AdaOS), so maybe
that colours my judgement; if so, however, that's just tough.

I have really appreciated the input from this lengthy (meta?)thread, but I
feel the need for action. I need sets! Contars! The wide open spaces!

I have not at this moment thought of any names better (hah ;-) than "Tenet"
and "Dastar". Dastar is what I have used internally in writing code for
AdaOS. It stands for DAta STorage And Retrieval (but is also a Sikh turban,
which seems oddly appropriate). Can I pinch one of these for my own
containers project, please?

--
Best wishes,
Nick Roberts