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=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,b8b8a54001adc4d2 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news1.google.com!news4.google.com!news.glorb.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!local1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.comcast.com!news.comcast.com.POSTED!not-for-mail NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 01 Jan 2005 17:36:26 -0600 From: tmoran@acm.org Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Possible Ada deficiency? References: <1104544963.930877.75170@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com> X-Newsreader: Tom's custom newsreader Message-ID: Date: Sat, 01 Jan 2005 17:36:27 -0600 NNTP-Posting-Host: 67.161.24.234 X-Trace: sv3-8Lhk19izg5XyYjcWubW9ax7QDNcBVX0APg78gTwqFrJQ+ctWwbD8Y7G9IprXqNvgARU1095L+NBAyK/!JPTDmbGbqsWCLr1imbbjTu4nEWaeTWB/t2WQnWmdBgfhab+alsfAPtimBrEFqA== X-Complaints-To: abuse@comcast.net X-DMCA-Complaints-To: dmca@comcast.net X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.22 Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:7381 Date: 2005-01-01T17:36:27-06:00 List-Id: >Otherwise, anyone could write a package as a child of another and expose a >public interface to the outside world that could change the private area >of its parent package. "Anyone could" read the package spec's source code past the word "private" and do various clever tricks. I think the difference here is in attitude toward use of the "child package" construct. I think of "child" as a rather intimate relationship. I would expect the design of package P to include all of its fixed set of children, or at least to include a very definite expected framework for any future children. Random users shouldn't be writing children of my library packages. If they do, I would treat it as if they changed the parent package - if you break it you own it. This attitude is exemplified by ARM A.2(4) "In the standard mode, it is illegal to compile a child of package Ada."