Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!spool.mu.edu!uunet!mcsun!hp4nl!fwi.uva.nl!gene!djakman
From: djakman@fwi.uva.nl (Kemal Djakman  -- I89)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
Subject: What does (.0.) means?
Keywords: notation, indexing
Message-ID: <1991May2.215553.17853@fwi.uva.nl>
Date: 2 May 91 21:55:53 GMT
Article-I.D.: fwi.1991May2.215553.17853
Sender: news@fwi.uva.nl
Organization: FWI, University of Amsterdam
Lines: 30
Nntp-Posting-Host: gene.fwi.uva.nl


 
A few days ago there was some talk in comp.lang.pascal about optimizing
a null string assignment.  So, instead of doing:
 
  S:= '';   { S is a string variable }
 
You should do:
 
  S(.0.):= #0;   { assign 0 to the length byte }
 
That piece of code puzzles me.  Normally I would code it by:
 
  S[0]:= #0;
 
What interest me here is the notation itself.  Is the use of "(." and ".)"
just a synonym for "[" and "]" ?  Like the two known notations for comment?
Is it defined in the standard or specific to Turbo Pascal?
 
By the way:  Since version 5.0 of Turbo Pascal,  The above mentioned code
             {S:= '';} is automatically optimized by the compiler.  As well
             as the expression in:  if (S='') then ...
 
---kemal---

-- 

/* --- limited warranty: ------------------------------------------------------
   This e-mail is only guaranteed to take some space in your mailbox file.  (k)
*/