Re: VMS Pascal article

On 1/3/2025 1:51 PM, Dan Cross wrote:

In article <vl9aln$o72$1@dont-email.me>, Arne Vajhøj  <arne@vajhoej.dk> wrote:

On 1/3/2025 1:17 PM, Dan Cross wrote:

In article <67781447$0$711$14726298@news.sunsite.dk>,

And also fixed in the description of VARYING further up.

>
You should seriously mention the STRING type, though.

>
I think VARYING OF CHAR is what is used most in VMS Pascal.

 Weird; I can't imagine why.

I never use string (on VMS).
$ search sys$common:[syshlp.examples.pascal]*.pas varying
$ search sys$common:[syshlp.examples.pascal]*.pas "string("
indicate that whoever write VMS Pascal examples also prefer
varying of char over string.
If I were to guess about why, then I believe it is historic
reasons. varying of char has been there since like forever.
string was added with ISO Pascal support later.

                            Regardless, it may be worthwhile to
at least mention it, since you state explicitly that there are
three types for representing textual, string-like data, but
VSI's documentation makes it clear that there are actually four.

Good point.
I have updated.

Also, it's a bit of a bummer that you didn't mention nested
functions/procedures, which are among the cooler aspects of the
language:
>
$ type foo.pas
(* foo *)
program foo(output);
procedure hello;
      procedure world(var who: String);
          function punct: char;
          begin
              punct := '!'
          end;
      begin
          who := 'World' + punct
      end;
var
      who: String (10);
begin
      world(who);
      writeln('Hello, ', who)
end;
begin
      hello
end.

>
There is already an example. fac is inside testfac.
>
I will add a note about it.

 Ah, I see it now; the lack of indentation makes it hard to spot.

I don't indent them.
With the blank lines I put in then I feel that indenting
nested procedures/functions would make it too much space.
But it is a close decision. In C# I do not use blank lines
and I do indent local methods.
Same code:
using System;
public class Program
{
     public static void TestFac()
     {
         int Fac(int n)
         {
             if(n < 2)
             {
                 return 1;
             }
             else
             {
                 return n * Fac(n - 1);
             }
         }
         for(int i = 0; i < 6; i++)
         {
             Console.WriteLine("fac({0})={1}", i, Fac(i));
         }
     }
     public static void Main(string[] args)
     {
         TestFac();
     }
}
Arne