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"Team Ada: Ada Advocacy Issues (83 & 95)" <[log in to unmask]>
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Date:
Tue, 20 Oct 1998 12:12:52 -0500
Reply-To:
Samuel Mize <[log in to unmask]>
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Samuel Mize <[log in to unmask]>
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<[log in to unmask]> from "Daniel Wengelin" at Oct 20, 98 03:12:37 pm
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Daniel Wengelin asks whether Ada 95's child/private packages can provide
visibility control similar to:
>a programming environment that supports "export sets"
> from components, i.e. the ability to define for a given software component
> (CSC, say 10-50 kSLOC) the package specifikations that are allowed to be
> "with"ed from another component.


Yes, I believe so.  This kind of partitioning is discussed in the Ada 95
Rationale in section II.8.  It was a motivator for the whole idea of
child and private child units.

I'm very rusty on the specific syntax and semantics -- we aren't using
these features in my current work -- but here's the general idea.

You start with a package CSC_01.  This may have child packages.  These
can be "with"ed by any other package, whether or not that other package
is a child of CSC_01.  You can consider these child packages to be your
"export set."

If a package is defined to be a PRIVATE child of CSC_01, it may ONLY
be "with"ed by the body of another child of CSC_01, or by the SPEC
of another PRIVATE child of CSC_01.  Thus it's invisible outside
the CSC_01 child hierarchy, but it can be used to implement the
routines provided by your "export set" packages.

For further info I recommend the Ada 95 Rationale, then the Ada 95
Reference Manual (the ARM).

Best,
Sam Mize

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

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