Xref: utzoo comp.lang.misc:2675 comp.lang.modula2:1269
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ingr!garth!phipps
From: phipps@garth.UUCP (Clay Phipps)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc,comp.lang.modula2
Subject: Re: Modula-2 Cast Syntax (was Re: What is B&D? (...))
Keywords: cast,conversion
Message-ID: <2526@garth.UUCP>
Date: 8 Feb 89 01:49:58 GMT
References: <186@m2xenix.UUCP> <2493@garth.UUCP> <196@m2xenix.UUCP>
Reply-To: phipps@garth.UUCP (Clay Phipps)
Organization: INTERGRAPH (APD) -- Palo Alto, CA
Lines: 42

In article <196@m2xenix.UUCP> randy@m2xenix.UUCP (Randy Bush) writes:
>In article <2493@garth.UUCP> phipps@garth.UUCP (Clay Phipps) writes:
>>... Is the ISO proposal trying to make way for a distinction between 
>>casts and conversions [in Modula-2] ? 
>Well, casts and conversions were always clearly distinct in the language,...
>  TypeName ( object )        (* cast *)
>  VAL ( TypeName, value )    (* conversion *)

I confess that I had forgotten about "VAL" in the long time since I've looked 
at Modula-2.  According to the "Report On The Programming Language Modula-2" 
(in Wirth: _Programming In Modula-2_, 1st ed., 1982),
the "VAL" standard procedure is applicable only to values of ordinal types,
excluding reals and strings, and, thereby, falling short of what I expected.  
Perhaps the applicability of "VAL" was broadened in the 2nd edition, 
which appeared a month or so after I bought my copy of the 1st edition.
The apparent absence of standard procedures to convert between string
and scalar types (and vice versa) without performing I/O is particularly
surprising in a language deriving its name from "modules".  
Have string conversion standard procedures been added ?

>So, a compromise was reached (don't you just _love_ committees:-).
>... aside from resenting the inordinate amount of time spent on a
>trivial issue, the current proposal seems reasonable to me.  And you?

Just to be on the safe side -- nein !  nyet !                    :-}.
What the heck, you're stuck with the earlier decisions.

>Anyone saying 'no' is hereby sentenced to a full day of discussing this in
>an uncomfortable room in a strange town with twenty other language lawyers.

I've already know what that is like, although not for that committee,
and only if San Jose qualifies as a "strange town".  I'd prefer that
to the >=2 days that I've wasted trying to install a hard disk on my PC,
sans even the most rudimentary documentation on controller and drive.
Wanna trade hassles ?

Now bring on those import/export rules ... 8-|
-- 
[The foregoing may or may not represent the position, if any, of my employer]
 
Clay Phipps                       {ingr,pyramid,sri-unix!hplabs}!garth!phipps
Intergraph APD, 2400#4 Geng Road, Palo Alto, CA 93403            415/494-8800