johnt@mead.UUCP (John Townsend) (08/10/90)
The purpose of this note is mostly for me to see if I can really get a message to the outside world through USENET, but I'd also like to introduce myself to this Ada group. I recently joined Mead Data Central (the world's largest electronic publisher, with the Lexis/Nexis database) after working for SofTech for three years. At SofTech, I was responsible for writing a significant portion of the ACVC (Ada Compiler Validation Capability) test suite, and also for validating numerous Ada compilers (including, <ahem>, Verdix). Now, in the commercial world, I am busy getting up to speed with the "other" language, C++. However, I miss Ada, and look forward to getting a daily "fix" from here. Object-orientation or not, I'll NEVER get used to implicit type conversions! Now, regarding USE clauses: I've known a lot of programmers who seem to think that they should always automatically follow a WITH (context) clause. I'm of the opinion that the USE clause is one of the biggest crutches in Ada, however, and should be used sparingly or not at all. "Readablity" to me is program code which tells me exactly what the computer's going to execute. I don't cuddle up in a beanbag next to the fireplace with a "good program" for recreational reading in the evenings, y'know, so I don't care if it's artisticly pleasing to the eye if I can debug it quickly. On the other hand, I realize that on large projects, the strict use of dot notation only can really cause identifiers to get out of hand. After all, package STANDARD is implicitly USEd, y'know. The moral: use it when and where you really have to, not automatically. If God (aka AJPO) had wanted you to always use USE clauses, he would've included it in the WITH clause.