Matthew Heaney wrote:
> > A pragma like "pragma Overrides(...)" would seem to be a good thing
> > to have here.  This should go on the "list" of useful pragmas for
> > vendors to agree on...
> >
> > -Tuck
>
> Just out of curiosity: Why wasn't this included as a feature of the
> language to begin with?  And why a pragma instead of a keyword (as I
> suggested in my earlier post)?

(I'm not Tuck, but I'll answer.)

Because a vendor can add a pragma.  You can't alter the actual
language and still have Ada.

If vendors start providing this, and people find it useful, that
would be a good argument for working the concept into the next
language revision.

I assume we would want that to be upwardly compatible, so the
"override" keyword might be optional, but cause a compilation
failure if the subprogram does not override a dispatching
subprogram.

As for why it wasn't included in Ada95 to begin with, I suspect it
wasn't thought up in time, since other OO languages don't have
this feature either.

Best,
Sam Mize

--
Samuel Mize -- [log in to unmask] (home email) -- Team Ada
Fight Spam: see http://www.cauce.org/ \\\ Smert Spamonam