Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bbn!rochester!ur-tut!sunybcs!boulder!hao!ames!umd5!brl-adm!adm!jipping@frodo.cs.hope.EDU
From: jipping@frodo.cs.hope.EDU (Mike Jipping)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
Subject: Re:  Pascal Enumerated I/O
Message-ID: <11903@brl-adm.ARPA>
Date: 19 Feb 88 06:12:40 GMT
Sender: news@brl-adm.ARPA
Lines: 30

> I'm trying to find out if any version of Pascal running on any machine
> supports I/O on enumerated data types.  Example:
>    ...
> I think I've heard of versions of Pascal that allow I/O on enumerated
> types, but I can't for the life of me remember any specifics.

It seems to me that doing I/O on enumerated types goes against the grain
of the concept.  If you take a strict view of data typing, what does a
compiler expect from input or print to output?  Certainly not a sequence of
characters -- for that would be a string (i.e., array of char), NOT an 
enumerated type.  And certainly not a number (perhaps indicating the ordinal
value...) for the same typing reasons.  

Perhaps this is why it isn't implemented.  And why enum I/O is not defined in
the Pascal standards.

Maybe what is necessary is a "string-to-enum-type" function, taking a string
and jumping on it to (somehow) give the enum type.  However, allowing this
type conversion string -> enum will most likely have to  access the 
implementation of a specific type representation for a specific compiler.  
At best, not a portable solution...

> Danny Sharpe, Ga Tech Box 34832, Atlanta, GA, 30332
> Internet:  dts@pyr.gatech.edu
> uucp: ...!{decvax,hplabs,ihnp4,linus,rutgers,seismo}!gatech!gitpyr!dts

		Mike Jipping
		Dept. of Computer Science
		Hope College
		jipping@cs.hope.edu