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From: bills@cca.UUCP (Bill Stackhouse)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.modula2
Subject: Re: Modula-2 standard
Message-ID: <11458@cca.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 5-Dec-86 16:21:46 EST
Article-I.D.: cca.11458
Posted: Fri Dec  5 16:21:46 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 6-Dec-86 18:03:34 EST
Reply-To: bills@cca.UUCP (Bill Stackhouse)
Organization: Computer Corp. of America, Cambridge
Lines: 29

A comment about problem #4 which had to do with a 16 bit word
which has a 6 bit integer between a bunch of 1 bit fields. Why
not solve it with the Pascal approach of a packed structured
record?
x = packed record of
  b1, b2, b3, b4 : boolean;
  i : 0..63;
  b5, b6, b7, b8, b9, b10 : boolean;
end;

The syntax is loose but the key is that a compiler can
detect the intent that everything should fit into one word.
You might want a shift function but not to solve the given
example.

Something I would like to see in all procedure based languages
is some syntax in the procedure def. that indicates that the
procedure is to be included inline at all places it is called.
That would allow the abstraction to still occur but would do
away with the overhead of calling and returning just for a few
lines of code.


-- 

Bill Stackhouse
Cambridge, MA.

bills@cca.cca.com