From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.5-pre1 (2020-06-20) on
	ip-172-31-74-118.ec2.internal
X-Spam-Level: 
X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.9 required=3.0 tests=BAYES_00,FORGED_GMAIL_RCVD,
	FREEMAIL_FROM autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.5-pre1
Path: eternal-september.org!reader02.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: =?UTF-8?Q?Bj=c3=b6rn_Lundin?= <b.f.lundin@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Better way to fill Storage_IO?
Date: Wed, 19 May 2021 22:18:47 +0200
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID: <s83rr7$krq$1@dont-email.me>
References: <c6e99ba9-6455-4279-b175-343735acf2ecn@googlegroups.com>
 <lymtstxjdv.fsf@pushface.org>
 <3cfe02b8-18d3-4673-b808-48ad29092517n@googlegroups.com>
 <lypmxndbf2.fsf@pushface.org> <s82e2r$81l$1@dont-email.me>
 <s82i3g$el$1@dont-email.me> <s83oo3$s2s$1@dont-email.me>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Injection-Date: Wed, 19 May 2021 20:18:47 -0000 (UTC)
Injection-Info: reader02.eternal-september.org; posting-host="3294e74acc61672f724a4128636404d8";
	logging-data="21370"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org";	posting-account="U2FsdGVkX18gpE9TJzG2XP3UKjEne3DI"
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:78.0)
 Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/78.10.1
Cancel-Lock: sha1:hH+87+XWpJP73oSIfAUFeIokMqI=
In-Reply-To: <s83oo3$s2s$1@dont-email.me>
Content-Language: en-US
Xref: reader02.eternal-september.org comp.lang.ada:62015
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

Den 2021-05-19 kl. 21:25, skrev J-P. Rosen:
> Le 19/05/2021 à 10:26, Björn Lundin a écrit :
>> Given the above I do prefer
>>
>>
>> Text_IO.Put_Line ("Next is " & Next_Location'Image);
>>
>> over
>>
>> Text_IO.Put_Line ("Next is " & 
>> Coded_Values.WCS_Next_Location_Type_Type'Image(Next_Location));
> 
> Interesting example. When I define a type that I want to be able to 
> print, I define also (in the same place) an instantiation of 
> Integer_IO/Enumeration_IO, and I would write:
>     Put ("Next is "); Put (Next_Location); New_Line;
> 
> 'Image was not intended for regular IO.
> 

If a function/procedure is public, users will use them.
And very likely in ways 'not intended',
So there should be a clear statement in the RM making it clear
that using 'Image is not for regular IO.

We use tons of it for writing to log files
This is why I want 'image for record types.
It would save me from writing To_String functions dumping record values 
into the log. I think it made it into 202x but I am not sure.

And reasoning 'when I define a type I want to print...' does
not really appeal to  me. I'd like the language to provide a way to
create a string version of my variables - basically any of them -
for log file use. When I define a type I am not always thinking if this 
may or may not will be logged in the future, by someone else.
This leads to all types must define a Image/To_String function.

Why? Whats the point? What is the gain?

For records with nested lists I can see challenges,
but for scalar values? Floats? Fixed?

Why not have an easy-to-use AND readable solution?


-- 
Björn