AARM95 - Formal Types
Author: JTC1/SC22/WG9/ARG, by Randall Brukardt, ARG Editor

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# 12.5 Formal Types

1
[A generic formal subtype can be used to pass to a generic unit a subtype whose type is in a certain class of types.]
1.a
Reason: We considered having intermediate syntactic categories formal_integer_type_definition, formal_real_type_definition, and formal_fixed_point_definition, to be more uniform with the syntax rules for non-generic-formal types. However, that would make the rules for formal types slightly more complicated, and it would cause confusion, since formal_discrete_type_definition would not fit into the scheme very well.

#### Syntax

2
formal_type_declaration ::=
type defining_identifier[discriminant_part] is formal_type_definition;
3
formal_type_definition ::=
formal_private_type_definition
| formal_derived_type_definition
| formal_discrete_type_definition
| formal_signed_integer_type_definition
| formal_modular_type_definition
| formal_floating_point_definition
| formal_ordinary_fixed_point_definition
| formal_decimal_fixed_point_definition
| formal_array_type_definition
| formal_access_type_definition

#### Legality Rules

4
For a generic formal subtype, the actual shall be a subtype_mark; it denotes the (generic) actual subtype.
4.a
Ramification: When we say simply ``formal'' or ``actual'' (for a generic formal that denotes a subtype) we're talking about the subtype, not the type, since a name that denotes a formal_type_declaration denotes a subtype, and the corresponding actual also denotes a subtype.

#### Static Semantics

5
A formal_type_declaration declares a (generic) formal type, and its first subtype, the (generic) formal subtype.
5.a
Ramification: A subtype (other than the first subtype) of a generic formal type is not a generic formal subtype.
6
The form of a formal_type_definition determines a class to which the formal type belongs. For a formal_private_type_definition the reserved words tagged and limited indicate the class (see 12.5.1). For a formal_derived_type_definition the class is the derivation class rooted at the ancestor type. For other formal types, the name of the syntactic category indicates the class; a formal_discrete_type_definition defines a discrete type, and so on.
6.a
Reason: This rule is clearer with the flat syntax rule for formal_type_definition given above. Adding formal_integer_type_definition and others would make this rule harder to state clearly.

#### Legality Rules

7
The actual type shall be in the class determined for the formal.
7.a
Ramification: For example, if the class determined for the formal is the class of all discrete types, then the actual has to be discrete.
7.b
Note that this rule does not require the actual to belong to every class to which the formal belongs. For example, formal private types are in the class of composite types, but the actual need not be composite. Furthermore, one can imagine an infinite number of classes that are just arbitrary sets of types that obey the closed-under-derivation rule, and are therefore technically classes (even though we don't give them names, since they are uninteresting). We don't want this rule to apply to those classes.
7.c
``Limited'' is not a ``interesting'' class, but ``nonlimited'' is; it is legal to pass a nonlimited type to a limited formal type, but not the other way around. The reserved word limited really represents a class containing both limited and nonlimited types. ``Private'' is not a class; a generic formal private type accepts both private and nonprivate actual types.
7.d
It is legal to pass a class-wide subtype as the actual if it is in the right class, so long as the formal has unknown discriminants.

#### Static Semantics

8/1
{8652/0037} [The formal type also belongs to each class that contains the determined class.] The primitive subprograms of the type are as for any type in the determined class. For a formal type other than a formal derived type, these are the predefined operators of the type. For an elementary formal type, the predefined operators are implicitly declared immediately after the declaration of the formal type. For a composite formal type, the predefined operators are implicitly declared either immediately after the declaration of the formal type, or later in its immediate scope according to the rules of 7.3.1.; they are implicitly declared immediately after the declaration of the formal type. In an instance, the copy of such an implicit declaration declares a view of the predefined operator of the actual type, even if this operator has been overridden for the actual type. [The rules specific to formal derived types are given in 12.5.1.]
8.a
Ramification: All properties of the type are as for any type in the class. Some examples: The primitive operations available are as defined by the language for each class. The form of constraint applicable to a formal type in a subtype_indication depends on the class of the type as for a nonformal type. The formal type is tagged if and only if it is declared as a tagged private type, or as a type derived from a (visibly) tagged type. (Note that the actual type might be tagged even if the formal type is not.)
NOTES
9
7 Generic formal types, like all types, are not named. Instead, a name can denote a generic formal subtype. Within a generic unit, a generic formal type is considered as being distinct from all other (formal or nonformal) types.
9.a
Proof: This follows from the fact that each formal_type_declaration declares a type.
10
8 A discriminant_part is allowed only for certain kinds of types, and therefore only for certain kinds of generic formal types. See 3.7.
10.a
Ramification: The term ``formal floating point type'' refers to a type defined by a formal_floating_point_definition. It does not include a formal derived type whose ancestor is floating point. Similar terminology applies to the other kinds of formal_type_definition.

#### Examples

11
Examples of generic formal types:
12
`type Item is private;
type Buffer(Length : Natural) is limited private;`
13
`type Enum is (<>);
type Int is range <>;
type Angle is delta <>;
type Mass is digits <>;`
14
`type Table is array (Enum) of Item;`
15
Example of a generic formal part declaring a formal integer type:
16
`generic
type Rank is range <>;
First : Rank := Rank'First;
Second : Rank := First + 1; -- the operator "+" of the type Rank`

#### Wording Changes from Ada 83

16.a
RM83 has separate sections ``Generic Formal Xs'' and ``Matching Rules for Formal Xs'' (for various X's) with most of the text redundant between the two. We have combined the two in order to reduce the redundancy. In RM83, there is no ``Matching Rules for Formal Types'' section; nor is there a ``Generic Formal Y Types'' section (for Y = Private, Scalar, Array, and Access). This causes, for example, the duplication across all the ``Matching Rules for Y Types'' sections of the rule that the actual passed to a formal type shall be a subtype; the new organization avoids that problem.
16.b
The matching rules are stated more concisely.
16.c
We no longer consider the multiplying operators that deliver a result of type universal_fixed to be predefined for the various types; there is only one of each in package Standard. Therefore, we need not mention them here as RM83 had to.

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