Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!husc6!ukma!rutgers!mcnc!ecsvax!dukeac!sbigham
From: sbigham@dukeac.UUCP (Scott Bigham)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
Subject: Questions on the Pascal standard
Message-ID: <1096@dukeac.UUCP>
Date: 9 Nov 88 22:33:43 GMT
Reply-To: sbigham@dukeac.UUCP (Scott Bigham)
Organization: Academic Computing, Duke University, Durham, NC
Lines: 39

[Line-eater virus infects DoD computers.  Film at 11.]

If there's someone out there on the ANSI X3J9 Pascal committee, I've a few
questions (others are welcome to answer, but I figured someone on the
standards committee would be more in a position to know):

-The following lines cause compile-time errors:

procedure joe(fred:array[1..10] of integer);

function alice:^integer;

function harvey:structure; {where structure is a record type}

Granted, all of these can be gotten around with appropriately chosen type
definitions, but, naive programmer that I am, I can't see why they shouldn't
be able to compile as is.  Comments?

-What's the official position on passing procedures/functions as formal
	parameters or using them as record fields?

-What's the position on variable length strings (ie. what will the "standard"
	implementation of such look like)?

-People have complained about lack of good file handling in Pascal.  Maybe
	I've been biased by VMS Pascal, but I don't see what it's missing.
	Anyone care to enlighten me? [As if I had to ask... :-)]

I'd dearly love to hear what's going on in the Pascal committee, so I'll know
what my favorite programming language is going to end up looking like.  I
doubt I'm alone, either.  Talk to us, X3J9!

						sbigham

-- 
Scott Bigham                         "The opinions expressed above are
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