NO, YOU, DON'T!
People have been telling you this all the time, why don't you listen? THIS DOES WORK IN BP:
program foo; const ch: array[1..100] of char = 'When in'; begin end.
(It doesn't work with 1000 indeed, as BP has a string length limitation of 255, but that's just a BP quirk.)
That's very nice. However, please recall that I said the main reason for using a character array instead of a string is because I needed more than 255 characters. So, having a better way to initialize a character array of up to 255 characters doesn't help me. If I only wanted 255 characters I would have used a string in the first place.
You may call this "just a BP quirk" but when you are using BP, or when you want to be compatible with BP it is not a "quirk" it is a real limitation. I have to assume that some of the users of the Pascal Macro Compiler will be using BP, regardless of whatever else exists.
Contestcen@aol.com wrote:
NO, YOU, DON'T!
People have been telling you this all the time, why don't you listen? THIS DOES WORK IN BP:
program foo; const ch: array[1..100] of char = 'When in'; begin end.
(It doesn't work with 1000 indeed, as BP has a string length limitation of 255, but that's just a BP quirk.)
That's very nice. However, please recall that I said the main reason for using a character array instead of a string is because I needed more than 255 characters. So, having a better way to initialize a character array of up to 255 characters doesn't help me. If I only wanted 255 characters I would have used a string in the first place.
You may call this "just a BP quirk" but when you are using BP, or when you want to be compatible with BP it is not a "quirk" it is a real limitation. I have to assume that some of the users of the Pascal Macro Compiler will be using BP, regardless of whatever else exists.
You've moved this discussion from private mail to the GPC list. I don't really mind, but arguing for a solution to a problem that BP has and GPC doesn't, on the GPC list, seems a bit off-topic here. Well, it would have been OT in private mail as well, since I'm not using BP anymore. So you might want to post in c.l.p.b or other Borland forums where this might be relevant.
And when you do so, you might want to state the problems you're trying to solve from the start. For several mails, as well as posts in the newsgroups, you just talked about initializing character arrays, which simply isn't a problem in general. If you've made it clear that you were talking about character arrays > 255 chars in BP, where you hit a compiler limit, readers such as Scott, Chuck and me would have known what you were talking about. (And probably ignored you since we're not affected by those problems.)
Frank
This SHOULD NOT work in BP or any flavor of Pascal, any more than the following should work:
const Digit: array[0..255] of 0..9 = 123456789101112;
A string is a different data type than an array of char, with a lot of different methods.
I am surprised tht BP identifies short arrays of char with short strings.
Would (and should) this work?
program foo;
var ch1, ch2, ch3: array[1..100] of char;
begin ch1 := '123'; ch2 := '456'; ch3 := ch1+ch2; (* or ch3 := Concat(ch1, ch2); *) Writeln(ch3, ' ', Length(ch3)); end.
I say absolutely not. HF
Contestcen@aol.com wrote:
NO, YOU, DON'T!
People have been telling you this all the time, why don't you listen? THIS DOES WORK IN BP:
program foo; const ch: array[1..100] of char = 'When in'; begin end.
(It doesn't work with 1000 indeed, as BP has a string length limitation of 255, but that's just a BP quirk.)
That's very nice. However, please recall that I said the main reason for using a character array instead of a string is because I needed more than 255 characters. So, having a better way to initialize a character array of up to 255 characters doesn't help me. If I only wanted 255 characters I would have used a string in the first place.
You may call this "just a BP quirk" but when you are using BP, or when you want to be compatible with BP it is not a "quirk" it is a real limitation. I have to assume that some of the users of the Pascal Macro Compiler will be using BP, regardless of whatever else exists.
Prof. Harley Flanders wrote:
This SHOULD NOT work in BP or any flavor of Pascal, any more than the following should work:
const Digit: array[0..255] of 0..9 = 123456789101112;
A string is a different data type than an array of char, with a lot of different methods.
ISO 7185, 6.4.3.2:
: Any type designated packed and denoted by an array-type having as its : index-type a denotation of a subrange-type specifying a smallest value of 1 and : a largest value of greater than 1, and having as its component-type a : denotation of the char-type, shall be designated a string-type. : : The correspondence of character-strings to values of string-types is obtained : by relating the individual string-elements of the character-string, taken in : textual order, to the components of the values of the string-type in order of : increasing index.
So a packed array of char is indeed a string. (Both BP and GPC don't require packed here, but otherwise it's the same.)
I am surprised tht BP identifies short arrays of char with short strings.
In this regard, BP is standard-compliant ...
Would (and should) this work?
program foo;
var ch1, ch2, ch3: array[1..100] of char;
begin ch1 := '123'; ch2 := '456'; ch3 := ch1+ch2; (* or ch3 := Concat(ch1, ch2); *) Writeln(ch3, ' ', Length(ch3)); end.
I say absolutely not. HF
Yes, it does. Adding `packed' and declaring `Output', it's valid Extended Pascal, AFAICS.
BP doesn't allow this, so it's not standard-compliant here.
ISO 10206:
: 6.4.3.3.1 General : : A stringÂtype shall be a fixedÂstringÂtype or a variableÂstringÂtype or the : required type designated canonicalÂstringÂtype. Each stringÂtype value is a : value of the canonicalÂstringÂtype. : : Each value of a stringÂtype shall be structured as a oneÂtoÂone mapping from : an indexÂdomain to a set of components possessing the charÂtype. The : indexÂdomain shall be a finite set that is empty or that contains successive : integers starting with 1. : : NOTE --- StringÂtypes possess properties that allow accessing a substring : (see 6.5.6) and reading from a textfile (see 6.10.1). StringÂtype values may : be used as the actualÂparameter corresponding to a value parameter : possessing a stringÂtype (see 6.7.3.2), used as the actualÂparameter : assigned to a conformant actualÂvariable possessing a fixedÂstringÂtype and : conforming to a valueÂconformantÂarrayÂspecification (see 6.7.3.7.2), : assigned to a variable possessing a stringÂtype (see 6.9.2.2), written to a : textfile (see 6.10.3.6), used with the relationalÂoperators (see 6.8.3.5), : and used with the string concatenation operator (see 6.8.3.6). See also : 6.4.5 and 6.4.6.
: 6.4.3.3.2 FixedÂstringÂtypes : : A subrangeÂtype shall be designated a fixedÂstringÂindexÂtype if and only if : the expression in the first subrangeÂbound in the subrangeÂtype is : nonvarying (see 6.8.2), does not contain a discriminant identifier, and : denotes the integer value 1. Any type designated packed and denoted by an : arrayÂtype having as its indexÂtype a denotation of a : fixedÂstringÂindexÂtype and having as its componentÂtype a denotation of the : charÂtype, shall be designated a fixedÂstringÂtype.
: 6.4.6 AssignmentÂcompatibility : : A value of type T2 shall be designated assignmentÂcompatible with a type T1 : if any of the following six statements is true: : : f) T1 and T2 are compatible, T1 is a stringÂtype or the charÂtype, and the : length of the value of T2 is less than or equal to the capacity of T1 : (see 6.4.3.3). : : At any place where the rule of assignmentÂcompatibility is used to require a : value of the canonical stringÂtype to be assignmentÂcompatible with a : fixedÂstringÂtype or the charÂtype, the canonical stringÂtype value shall : be treated as a value of the fixedÂstringÂtype whose components in order of : increasing index shall be the components of the canonicalÂstringÂtype value : in order of increasing index followed by zero or more spaces.
Frank
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Contestcen＠aol.com -
Frank Heckenbach -
Prof. Harley Flanders