Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!ucsd!rutgers!bellcore!texbell!petro!swrinde!kent
From: kent@swrinde.swri.edu (Kent D. Polk)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
Subject: Re: Control variables in FOR loops
Message-ID: <6811@swrinde.swri.edu>
Date: 14 Dec 88 18:44:58 GMT
References: <1439@csuna.UUCP>
Reply-To: kent@swrinde.UUCP (Kent D. Polk)
Organization: Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas
Lines: 25

In article <1439@csuna.UUCP> abcscnuk@csun.UUCP (Naoto Kimura) writes:
>
>    I have gotten into some pretty heated discussions regarding the
>control variable in a for loop.  I was arguing that it was a bad idea to
>use a global variable, in fact it is an error to do so.  I'm arguing
>from the ISO standard, while the people I was arguing against were going
>by specific implementations that allowed it.
>
>    Should the use of a relatively global variable be allowed as a
>control variable for a for loop ?  Should the use of a passed parameter
>be allowed as a control variable ?  I say no to both of these.
>

Try porting a program written in Turbo Pascal which makes use of these
interesting 'features'. I have always used Pascal compilers which follow the
ISO standard in this respect - Forcing the use of local variables for
control loop variables, & have NEVER seen an instance where it was necessary
or even desirable (to me). The coding standards at places I have worked would
also not allow it, and I support those decisions. I have thrown out work
submitted to me which implemented such features because it costs ($$$) to
maintain such software.

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       Kent Polk - Southwest Research Institute       |>Insert Standard<
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