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1.1.5 Classification of Errors

Implementation Requirements

The language definition classifies errors into several different categories:

• Errors that are required to be detected prior to run time by every Ada implementation;

These errors correspond to any violation of a rule given in this International Standard, other than those listed below. In particular, violation of any rule that uses the terms shall, allowed, permitted, legal, or illegal belongs to this category. Any program that contains such an error is not a legal Ada program; on the other hand, the fact that a program is legal does not mean, per se, that the program is free from other forms of error.

The rules are further classified as either compile time rules, or post compilation rules, depending on whether a violation has to be detected at the time a compilation unit is submitted to the compiler, or may be postponed until the time a compilation unit is incorporated into a partition of a program.

• Errors that are required to be detected at run time by the execution of an Ada program;

The corresponding error situations are associated with the names of the predefined exceptions. Every Ada compiler is required to generate code that raises the corresponding exception if such an error situation arises during program execution. If such an error situation is certain to arise in every execution of a construct, then an implementation is allowed (although not required) to report this fact at compilation time.

• Bounded errors;

The language rules define certain kinds of errors that need not be detected either prior to or during run time, but if not detected, the range of possible effects shall be bounded. The errors of this category are called bounded errors. The possible effects of a given bounded error are specified for each such error, but in any case one possible effect of a bounded error is the raising of the exception Program_Error.

• Erroneous execution.

In addition to bounded errors, the language rules define certain kinds of errors as leading to erroneous execution. Like bounded errors, the implementation need not detect such errors either prior to or during run time. Unlike bounded errors, there is no language-specified bound on the possible effect of erroneous execution; the effect is in general not predictable.

Implementation Permissions

An implementation may provide nonstandard modes of operation. Typically these modes would be selected by a pragma or by a command line switch when the compiler is invoked. When operating in a nonstandard mode, the implementation may reject compilation_units that do not conform to additional requirements associated with the mode, such as an excessive number of warnings or violation of coding style guidelines. Similarly, in a nonstandard mode, the implementation may apply special optimizations or alternative algorithms that are only meaningful for programs that satisfy certain criteria specified by the implementation. In any case, an implementation shall support a standard mode that conforms to the requirements of this International Standard; in particular, in the standard mode, all legal compilation_units shall be accepted.

Implementation Advice

If an implementation detects a bounded error or erroneous execution, it should raise Program_Error.

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