17.2.9 First Controlling Parameter ¶

A new pragma/aspect, First_Controlling_Parameter, is introduced for tagged types, altering the semantics of primitive/controlling parameters. When a tagged type is marked with this aspect, only subprograms where the first parameter is of that type will be considered dispatching primitives. This pragma/aspect applies to the entire hierarchy, starting from the specified type, without affecting inherited primitives.

Here is an example of this feature:

package Example is
   type Root is tagged private;

   procedure P (V : Integer; V2 : Root);
   -- Primitive

   type Child is tagged private
     with First_Controlling_Parameter;

private
   type Root is tagged null record;
   type Child is new Root with null record;

   overriding
   procedure P (V : Integer; V2 : Child);
   -- Primitive

   procedure P2 (V : Integer; V2 : Child);
   -- NOT Primitive

   function F return Child; -- NOT Primitive

   function F2 (V : Child) return Child;
   -- Primitive, but only controlling on the first parameter
end Example;

Note that function F2 (V : Child) return Child; differs from F2 (V : Child) return Child'Class; in that the return type is a specific, definite type. This is also distinct from the legacy semantics, where further derivations with added fields would require overriding the function.

The option -gnatw_j, that you can pass to the compiler directly, enables warnings related to this new language feature. For instance, compiling the example above without this switch produces no warnings, but compiling it with -gnatw_j generates the following warning on the declaration of procedure P2:

warning: not a dispatching primitive of tagged type "Child"
warning: disallowed by First_Controlling_Parameter on "Child"

For generic formal tagged types, you can specify whether the type has the First_Controlling_Parameter aspect enabled:

generic
   type T is tagged private with First_Controlling_Parameter;
package T is
    type U is new T with null record;
    function Foo return U; -- Not a primitive
end T;

For tagged partial views, the value of the aspect must be consistent between the partial and full views:

package R is
   type T is tagged private;
...
private
   type T is tagged null record with First_Controlling_Parameter; -- ILLEGAL
end R;

Restricting the position of controlling parameter offers several advantages:

• Simplification of the dispatching rules improves readability of Ada programs. One doesn’t need to analyze all subprogram parameters to understand if the given subprogram is a primitive of a certain tagged type.
• A programmer is free to use any type, including class-wide types, on other parameters of a subprogram, without the need to consider possible effects of overriding a primitive or creating new one.
• The result of a function is never a controlling result.