Hi, everybody!

Here are my plans for GPC's default `write'/`writeln' behaviour:

* I will fix that bug which suppresses output when the field width is 0.

* String clipping will be ON by default, thus GPC will follow ISO and UCSD, not Borland. It can be switched OFF either with `--borland-pascal' or `--delphi', or with a separate switch `--no-clip-strings'.

* Field widths are 0 by default. This does comply to the ISO Standard Specifications AND corresponds to the behaviour of UCSD Pascal, Borland Pascal, and other PC Pascal compilers. This default can be changed using `--field-widths=12,24,6' (for Integer, Real, Boolean fields) which can be given either when compiling a Pascal source file ("locally") or when configuring GPC (making the default widths "global" for a site).

* Although default field widths of 0 are correct by ISO, there seems to be a de-facto standard among ISO Pascal compilers that field widths must ensure at least one blank in front of Integers and Reals. For this reason, `--standard-pascal' and `--extended-pascal' will imply default field widths which will make GPC behave like other ISO Pascal compilers.

* If `--field-widths' is given without arguments, it will make the field widths big enough to ensure at least one blank in front of numeric values.

* I will try to make it possible to pass these command-line options as compiler directives, e.g. (*$field-widths=12,24,6*). Having this, you can write programs which will behave independently of command-line options given to the compiler. This possibility will also cover most applications of a "GPC configuration file".

Okay, this will take some time to finish. I hope that everybody can live with this.

Yours,

Peter

Dipl.-Phys. Peter Gerwinski, Essen, Germany, free physicist and programmer peter.gerwinski@uni-essen.de - http://home.pages.de/~peter.gerwinski/ [970201] maintainer GNU Pascal [970401] - http://home.pages.de/~gnu-pascal/ [970125]