What is standard, and what isn't? - Gpc

29 Apr 1997


      Hello,
perhaps somebody can help to clarify the following two questions:
1) Is the comparision with `=' or `<>' of structured variables okay in
   ISO Pascal?  ISO 10206 6.8.3.5 only says that the types to be compared
   must be compatible.
If not, this might be a reasonable extension (already offered by
   some compilers, *not* including Borland Pascal;).
2) In GPC strings, the schema discriminant "Capacity" is accessible
   as a "record field" of the string.  Is this okay by ISO 10206,
   and should it be done for other schemata this way, too?  And how to
   tread the "length" field of a string?  ISO 10206 6.4.3.3 does not
   say anything about that.  I could imagine the string schema type to
   be something similar to
Type
         String ( Capacity: Integer ) = record
           length: Integer;
           String: packed array [ 1..Capacity ] of Char;
         end (* String *);
except that the "String" field is automatically dereferenced.
Thanks for your help,
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 [970420] - http://home.pages.de/~gnu-pascal/ [970125]