In the VHDL as it exists today, we must use numeric_std. No arithmetic is thus possible with std_logic_vector, we must use signed or unsigned.
I do not understand, what logic or arithmetic principle is broken when signed is converted to std_logic_vector implicitly or unsigned is converted to std_logic_vector implicitly.
I am merely talking about this type of scenario as an example:
entity cntr is
port (
i_clk : in std_logic;
..
o_q : out std_logic_vector(3 downto 0)
);
end entity;
architecture rtl of cntr is
…
signal value : unsigned(o_q’range);
…
begin
…
— This below line is invalid VHDL
o_q <= value;
end architecture;
.
