[comp.lang.pascal] Variable declarations & initializations

gpandelios@gtewis.arpa (05/06/88)

Greetings, Fellow BBoarders:

I am posting this for a co-worker, although I am curious about it as well.
It seems like a very simple question, something that should be resolved
by the documenation, but I can't find anything about it anywhere.

----------------------------Question Follows:-----------------------

Using Micropower Pascal, what is the correct syntax for declaring a 
variable and initializing it in the same statement?  Can this be done?  
The documenation doesn't seem to mention this.  Maybe it is only valid
in certain dialects.  The following are examples of the idea in other 
languages.  What is the Pascal syntax for this?

Fortran:
	INTEGER I /5/		!Long time since I wrote this stuff

Modula-2:
	VAR i : INTEGER := 56;	(* Looks right	*)

Ada:
	Max_Employees : integer range 0..20 := 0;


--------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks in advance for your help.  You may reply either to the net or
to me personally.

George

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jik@athena.mit.edu (Jonathan I. Kamens) (05/06/88)

I may be putting my foot in my mouth here, but as far as I know,
standard pascal does not allow initialization of variables upon
declaration.  There may be implementations that allow it, but that's a
pretty far-reaching straying from the standard, even worse than
Turbo-Pascal's constant arrays and constant records.

                        | "This has been a test of the emergency broadcasting
 -=> Jonathan I. Kamens |  system.  If there had been a real emergency, the
     MIT '91            |  radio to which you are listening would have been
     jik@ATHENA.MIT.EDU |  dissolved by the heatwave following the impact of
                        |  the first warhead."

catone@dsl.cis.upenn.edu (Tony Catone) (05/09/88)

In article <5137@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> jik@athena.mit.edu (Jonathan I. Kamens) writes:
>
>I may be putting my foot in my mouth here, but as far as I know,
>standard pascal does not allow initialization of variables upon
>declaration.  There may be implementations that allow it, but that's a
>pretty far-reaching straying from the standard, even worse than
>Turbo-Pascal's constant arrays and constant records.

I assume your last comment refers to Turbo's typed constant construct.
Since "typed constant" is really a misnomer for initialized variable
(ignoring the fact that typed constants reside in your code rather than
your data segment), what distinction are you making between Turbo's
strategy and that of other implementations?

					- Tony
					  catone@dsl.cis.upenn.edu
					  catone@wharton.upenn.edu

jik@athena.mit.edu (Jonathan I. Kamens) (05/10/88)

In article <4565@super.upenn.edu> catone@dsl.cis.upenn.edu.UUCP (Tony
Catone) writes:

>In article <5137@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> jik@athena.mit.edu (Jonathan
>I. Kamens) writes:
>>
>>[Stuff about Turbo-Pascal constant arrays and records]
>
>I assume your last comment refers to Turbo's typed constant construct.
>Since "typed constant" is really a misnomer for initialized variable
>(ignoring the fact that typed constants reside in your code rather than
>your data segment), what distinction are you making between Turbo's
>strategy and that of other implementations?

Looking back at what I posted, I realize that you are right.  I *did*
put my foot in my mouth :-).  If anything, the turbo typed constants
are more difficult to convert into standard pascal than initialization
upon declaration is.

I must have been a little tired....

		       Jonathan Kamens, MIT '91
			   ----------------
  "And Saint Attila raised the Holy Hand Grenade up on high saying,
"Oh, Lord, Bless this, thine Holy Hand Grenade, and with it smash our
enemies to tiny bits."
  And the Lord did grin, and the people did feast upon the lambs and
steers, and goats, and orangutans, and breakfast cerals, and lima
bean-
  Skip a bit, brother....