Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!ncar!mephisto!prism!tynor
From: tynor@prism.gatech.EDU (Steve Tynor)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: if UNIX then USE_C ?? (was: Reasons for drop)
Keywords: Functions and side effects
Message-ID: <6553@hydra.gatech.EDU>
Date: 1 Mar 90 15:11:49 GMT
References: <27187@cup.portal.com> <18175@megaron.cs.arizona.edu> <5563@crdgw1.crd.ge.com> <184@trwacs.UUCP> <5638@crdgw1.crd.ge.com>
Reply-To: tynor@prism.gatech.EDU (Steve Tynor)
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology
Lines: 15

In article <5638@crdgw1.crd.ge.com> kassover@control.crd.ge.com (David Kassover) writes:
>complex subprogram execution is called for.  What can screw you
>up here is a "SIDE EFFECT", which Ada flatly refuses to allow.

It's perfectly legal to write functions with side effects in Ada - there's no
restriction on what happens in the function's body - the only restriction Ada
makes is that a function's _parameters_ must not be affected (hence `in' only).

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
inherit STD_DISCLAIMER; -- Insist on Eiffel!
                     
    Steve Tynor
    Georgia Tech Research Institute
    Artificial Intelligence Branch
    tynor@prism.gatech.edu