Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!orstcs!jacobs.CS.ORST.EDU!louxj
From: louxj@jacobs.CS.ORST.EDU (John W. Loux)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp
Subject: Re: Disturbing Pascal Behavior
Message-ID: <11792@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU>
Date: 22 Jul 89 18:16:49 GMT
References: <231@bnrunix.UUCP>
Sender: usenet@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU
Reply-To: louxj@jacobs.CS.ORST.EDU.UUCP (John W. Loux)
Organization: Solve and Integrate, Corp. - Corvallis Oregon
Lines: 39

In article <231@bnrunix.UUCP> rick@bnrunix.UUCP (Richard Johns X7191) writes:
>
>function poops(s : string[80]) : string[80];
>
>and get:
>
>     7:     7:D        1 function poops(s : string[80]) : string[80];
>                                                 ^^            ^^
>>>>>>> Error at f.p/7
>
>What's the story?  I can declare variables of type string, but can't put them
>into a function declaration with or without the "[80]", using  VAR, or using
>$ALLOW_PACKED$.  I have seen anything in the manual that says it shouldn't be 
>possible.

My manual says that the result type must be "any previously defined type".
Though this does not completely or sufficiently address your case (and a
cursory examination of the manual fails to shed any more light), I have either
read somewhere or gleaned from experience that both the return type of
functions and the parameter types of both functions and procedures MUST be
predefined types.  STRING[80] is a type declaration, not a predefined type.

For this reason, scalar declarations (i.e., 0..9) and record declarations are
also forbidden.  $ALLOW_PACKED$ has nothing to do with it.  (This has been my
experience with HP Pascal since it was introduced on the first series 200
machines.)

Thus, define

    TYPE strng = STRING[80];

and your function as

    FUNCTION poops(s : strng) : strng;

and all should be well.

John W. Loux
louxj@jacobs.cs.orst.edu