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From: storm@cs.mcgill.ca (Marc WANDSCHNEIDER)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
Subject: WACKO happenings
Message-ID: <1991Apr9.070604.21757@cs.mcgill.ca>
Date: 9 Apr 91 07:06:04 GMT
Sender: news@cs.mcgill.ca (Netnews Administrator)
Organization: SOCS, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
Lines: 53


I recently wrote a program that simulates a computer network sending messages
back and forth using heaps, queues, and graphs for routing tables.

I finally got the program working, but the results were kinda screwy.  Alas,
I sat there for a few hours ripping my hair out trying to figure out what was
wrong with my program, and came to the conclusion there was none.

Still the program did not work.

I then took another look at the program:

Program Simulator (etc...)

Const etc.

type etc....

Var .....
    i: integer;    ****** <------ ***********

procedures/functions etc....

begin
 	....
	....
	i:= 0;
	....
	....
	....
end.

I then REMOVEd the line i: integer; from the var declarations, and the i:=0;
line from the main program.

Worked fine as soon as I did that.

Anybody know what the hell just happened...?  Logic says that it should MAKE
no difference whatsoever that i is there or not, since it is used correctly.

A friend suggested that there were stray pointers, but in PASCAL that shouldn't
be a problem, and the compiler should take care or not allow this.

Any *thoughtful* insight into this problem...?  (Okay, so I'm getting a little
sick of "gee, maybe your computer's broken" answers...)

./*-

-- 
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storm@cs.mcgill.ca         McGill University           It's 11pm, do YOU
Marc Wandschneider         Montreal, CANADA            know what time it is?
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