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From: ted@nmsu.edu (Ted Dunning)
Newsgroups: comp.sw.components
Subject: Re: Assignment in Ada
Message-ID: 
Date: 24 Sep 89 05:57:28 GMT
References:  <6556@hubcap.clemson.edu>
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Organization: NMSU Computer Science
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In-reply-to: billwolf%hazel.cs.clemson.edu@hubcap.clemson.edu's message of 23 Sep 89 21:13:43 GMT


In article <6556@hubcap.clemson.edu> billwolf%hazel.cs.clemson.edu@hubcap.clemson.edu (William Thomas Wolfe, 2847 ) writes:


       I wouldn't use either form of assignment to do a
       reference-counting system, though... it's too easy to create
       unkillable garbage if one process dies while still holding
       claim to a reference.

ok... got it.  part of the purpose of ada is to improve maintenance of
software, which implies good readability.

but this lack of := overloading means that we need to use a
procedure... but let's call it setq instead of assign.

now what is the relation of parameter passing by value (i.e.
initializing) on the reference counts in a reference counting adt?  is
there any way to catch the fact that passing a variable into a
procedure constitutes another reference?  no, you say?

and finally, why don't we just use the ada equivalent of
unwind-protect to decrement reference counts in the event a process
dies.  you say it doesn't exist and pre-processors don't exist either
and extension are outlawed?

well why didn't we just use lisp to implement our adt's?  (oh, right i
forgot about the 5% overhead for garbage collection).





--
ted@nmsu.edu
			remember, when extensions and subsets are outlawed,
			only outlaws will have extensions or subsets