How to get Ada private types in C

[chris at mimsy.UUCP]

While I do not know the precise details of Ada private types, I
can say that in general, private types are in fact implemented
through the use of a `generic pointer' type.  That is, outside of
a specific module, the only handle anything has on an object of a
private type is a pointer to that object.  In 4BSD, the generic
pointer type is `caddr_t' (Core ADDRess Type); in ANSI draft C it
is `void *' (a name that I find utterly lacking in taste, though
it does avoid a new keyword).

For example, a private data structure that implments longer integers
might look like this:

	struct longer {
		long	low;
		long	high;
	};

but the routines that deal with one of these take and return only
`caddr_t' types:

	caddr_t
	new_longer()
	{
		struct longer *l;

		l = (struct longer *) malloc(sizeof (struct longer));
		if (l != NULL)
			l->low = l->high = 0;
		return ((caddr_t) l);
	}

	void
	incr(obj)
		caddr_t obj;
	{
		struct longer *l = (struct longer *) obj;

		if (++l->low == 0)	/* overflow */
			l->high+++;
	}

This is often employed in an `object oriented' manner by providing
a structure containing pointers to the object-specific routines,
as well as an instance of the object itself:

	struct representation {
		caddr_t	r_obj;		/* the object */
		void	(*r_incr)();	/* a function that counts it up */
		void	(*r_print)();	/* a function that prints it */
	};

In this case, only the routine that creates a specific instance
of an object need know the names of the functions that implement
that object.  Everywhere else in the code, only the operations
provided by the `representation' are available:

	add_1_and_print(r)
		register struct representation *r;
	{

		(*r->incr)(r->obj);
		(*r->print)(r->obj);
	}

Of course, doing this is considerably simpler if the compiler helps
out, which is why we have languages like C++ in the first place.
Otherwise we could all write the C code that the C++ compiler
produces.
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7690)
UUCP:	seismo!mimsy!chris	ARPA/CSNet:	chris at mimsy.umd.edu