Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!mailrus!umix!rutgers!bellcore!tness7!tness1!nuchat!sugar!schaub
From: schaub@sugar.UUCP (Markus Schaub)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.modula2
Subject: Re: M2: A software development approach
Message-ID: <1783@sugar.UUCP>
Date: 31 Mar 88 02:15:19 GMT
References: <8803251846.AA11539@klaus.olsen.uucp>
Organization: Sugar Land UNIX - Houston, TX
Lines: 27

Robert Nagler writes:

I fully agree to your comments on the given fragments. There is just one
thing I'd like to add.

> of 32.  Second, CHR is used instead of the type coercion CHAR.  There
> is a subtle but critical difference between the two.  When I compiled

If you check with Wirth's latest compiler (well I'm away from ETH for a
year now, I hope it's still true) you'll see that type coercions have
changed. Coercions now use VAL(CHAR,card) and VAL has to be imported from
SYSTEM. The reason: All machine dependent things should be imported from
SYSTEM to make porting possible. If your program uses CARDINAL(address)
this might cause problems on an other computer etc. and they are hard to
find.

M2Amiga didn't follow this trend completely. We agree more with a draft of
the BSI standard that replaces CHR/ORD etc by CHAR/INTEGER/CARDINAL and
defines these as 'thinking' type conversions. If you want the old coercion
in M2Amiga you have to use CAST(type,val). 

Heb e schoene, uff e anders Mool

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