[comp.lang.pascal] Variable alignment in Unix Pascal

heidi@ucthpx.uct.ac.za (Heidi de Wet) (04/16/91)

I am involved in a project porting a large Pascal application from
an 8086-based system to Interactive Unix on a 386.  One of the 
requirements of the project is binary-level compatibility of files.

The original software was written in Intel's Pascal-86, which uses 
byte-alignment for all data types.  Unfortunately, our Unix Pascal 
compiler (LPI) uses 16-bit alignment only.  This makes it extremely 
difficult to access our files, which use complicated variant records.

I see the C compiler on our system supports options for specifying 
packing boundaries: -Zp[1|2|4] and #pragma pack.  Does anyone know 
of a Unix Pascal compiler which supports similar options?  Apart from
this, we only need support of ISO standard Pascal plus separate
compilation.

In desperation,
Heidi
-- 
Heidi de Wet
heidi@ucthpx.uct.ac.za
University of Cape Town, South Africa

ercs50@castle.ed.ac.uk (Andrew Higham) (04/22/91)

We have been trying to get this through by mail but have not been
successful.  Please be patient while we use up network bandwidth.
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heidi writes:
> I am involved in a project porting a large Pascal application from
> an 8086-based system to Interactive Unix on a 386.  One of the 
> requirements of the project is binary-level compatibility of files.

Heidi,

We have a Pascal compiler that may fit your requirements. It
provides ISO Pascal and many extensions including modular
separate compilation. It is available on 386 platforms running
Interactive and SCO Unix.

It is difficult to predict whether we would satisfy your
alignment constraints. However, we have a scheme where
you can purchase the compiler very cheaply for a finite
evaluation period. 

I suggest you contact:-

Mrs Kathleen Smith,
Distribution Manager,
Edinburgh Portable Compilers Ltd,
17 Alva Street,
Edinburgh,
EH2 4PH,
UK.

email:- support@epc.ed.ac.uk
tel:-   (+44) 31 225 6262
fax:-   (+44) 31 225 6644



Atholl Hay
EPCL
21.04.91