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1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2 -- --
3 -- GNAT COMPILER COMPONENTS --
4 -- --
5 -- I T Y P E S --
6 -- --
7 -- S p e c --
8 -- --
9 -- Copyright (C) 1992-2003 Free Software Foundation, Inc. --
10 -- --
11 -- GNAT is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under --
12 -- terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Soft- --
13 -- ware Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any later ver- --
14 -- sion. GNAT is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITH- --
15 -- OUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY --
16 -- or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License --
17 -- for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General --
18 -- Public License distributed with GNAT; see file COPYING. If not, write --
19 -- to the Free Software Foundation, 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, --
20 -- MA 02111-1307, USA. --
21 -- --
22 -- GNAT was originally developed by the GNAT team at New York University. --
23 -- Extensive contributions were provided by Ada Core Technologies Inc. --
24 -- --
25 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
27 -- This package contains declarations for handling of implicit types
29 with Einfo; use Einfo;
30 with Sem_Util; use Sem_Util;
31 with Types; use Types;
33 package Itypes is
35 --------------------
36 -- Implicit Types --
37 --------------------
39 -- Implicit types are types and subtypes created by the semantic phase
40 -- or the expander to reflect the underlying semantics. These could be
41 -- generated by building trees for corresponding declarations and then
42 -- analyzing these trees, but there are three reasons for not doing this:
44 -- 1. The declarations would require more tree nodes
46 -- 2. In some cases, the elaboration of these types is associated
47 -- with internal nodes in the tree.
49 -- 3. For some types, notably class wide types, there is no Ada
50 -- declaration that would correspond to the desired entity.
52 -- So instead, implicit types are constructed by simply creating an
53 -- appropriate entity with the help of routines in this package. These
54 -- entities are fully decorated, as described in Einfo (just as though
55 -- they had been created by the normal analysis procedure).
57 -- The type declaration declaring an Itype must be analyzed with checks
58 -- off because this declaration has not been inserted in the tree (if it
59 -- has been then it is not an itype), and hence checks that would be
60 -- generated during the analysis cannot be inserted in the tree. At any
61 -- rate, itype analysis should always be done with checks off, otherwise
62 -- duplicate checks will most likely be emitted.
64 -- Unlike types declared explicitly, implicit types are defined on first
65 -- use, which means that Gigi detects the use of such types, and defines
66 -- them at the point of the first use automatically.
68 -- Although Itypes are not explicitly declared, they are associated with
69 -- a specific node in the tree (roughly the node that caused them to be
70 -- created), via the Associated_Node_For_Itype field. This association is
71 -- used particularly by New_Copy_Tree, which uses it to determine whether
72 -- or not to copy a referenced Itype. If the associated node is part of
73 -- the tree to be copied by New_Copy_Tree, then (since the idea of the
74 -- call to New_Copy_Tree is to create a complete duplicate of a tree,
75 -- as though it had appeared separately in the source), the Itype in
76 -- question is duplicated as part of the New_Copy_Tree processing.
78 -----------------
79 -- Subprograms --
80 -----------------
82 function Create_Itype
83 (Ekind : Entity_Kind;
84 Related_Nod : Node_Id;
85 Related_Id : Entity_Id := Empty;
86 Suffix : Character := ' ';
87 Suffix_Index : Nat := 0;
88 Scope_Id : Entity_Id := Current_Scope)
89 return Entity_Id;
90 -- Used to create a new Itype.
92 -- Related_Nod is the node for which this Itype was created. It is
93 -- set as the Associated_Node_For_Itype of the new itype. The Sloc of
94 -- the new Itype is that of this node.
96 -- Related_Id is present only if the implicit type name may be referenced
97 -- as a public symbol, and thus needs a unique external name. The name
98 -- is created by a call to:
100 -- New_External_Name (Chars (Related_Id), Suffix, Suffix_Index, 'T')
102 -- If the implicit type does not need an external name, then the
103 -- Related_Id parameter is omitted (and hence Empty). In this case
104 -- Suffix and Suffix_Index are ignored and the implicit type name is
105 -- created by a call to New_Internal_Name ('T').
107 -- Note that in all cases, the name starts with "T". This is used
108 -- to identify implicit types in the error message handling circuits.
110 -- The Scope_Id parameter specifies the scope of the created type, and
111 -- is normally the Current_Scope as shown, but can be set otherwise.
113 end Itypes;