Re: Latest suggestion for 202x

["Randy Brukardt" <randy@rrsoftware.com>]

"Keith Thompson" <kst-u@mib.org> wrote in message 
news:lnd0j6kdsl.fsf@kst-u.example.com...
...
> In my example, if A is an array variable and I've written
>    A(I) = 42;
> I *can't* replace A by a function without modifying the code that uses
> it.  Array indexing can appear on the LHS of an assignment; a function
> call cannot (or at least could not until recently).

That's not strictly true, as anyone who's tried to write an Ada compiler 
knows. Even in Ada 83, you had to resolve assignments that are overloaded on 
both sides (the ACATS insists on it):

    Func(I).all := Func2(J);

or

    Func(I).C := Func3(K);

You're right, of course, that you can't put a function there without a 
dereference (explicit or implicit). And that's still true, we've just hidden 
the dereference even better.

                                                 Randy.