Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!husc6!bu-cs!buengc!art
From: art@buengc.BU.EDU (A. R. Thompson)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
Subject: Re: Multiple function-values (was: Re: The gaping hole left by var parameters ...)
Message-ID: <347@buengc.BU.EDU>
Date: 30 May 88 17:29:48 GMT
References: <5879@uwmcsd1.UUCP> <3499@omepd> <5915@uwmcsd1.UUCP> <3854@diku.dk>
Reply-To: art@buengc.bu.edu (A. R. Thompson)
Followup-To: comp.lang.pascal
Organization: Boston Univ. Col. of Eng.
Lines: 24

In article <3854@diku.dk> damm@diku.dk (Kristian Damm Jensen) writes:
>In article <5915@uwmcsd1.UUCP> markh@csd4.milw.wisc.edu (Mark William Hopkins) writes:
>>In article <3499@omepd> bobdi@omepd.UUCP (Bob Dietrich) writes:
>     << stuf deleted >>
>>You have a point on one matter: as long a Pascal does not allow files-as-values
>>side-effects must occur be allowed in functions.  Also, as long as Pascal does 
>>not allow the one to construct functions that can return MULTIPLE values, one
>>will need to write procedures with var parameters in their stead.
>
>This is not correct. A way to overcome this problem is to put those
>multiple values in a record, and let the function return a pointer to
>the record. Agreed, this doesn't seem very elegant, but it works, an you 

Wrong.  The result of the function is the pointer, not the record.  The
pointer is a single value of a simple type.  Actually, functions that have
structured types as a result type are to become part of the new Pascal
standard due out soon.  When?

The Oregon Software Pascal compiler, which I use as the Encore Pascal-2
compiler, does indeed allow structured types as the result types of
functions.  I can attest that this is quite handy, and makes good logical
sense to boot.

Rest deleted.