"&" is from C, I believe is "passing the address of", sorry,
On the other hand, the Pascal keyword VAR is described by Grogono in "Programming In Pascal" (c) 1978; pg 28; syntax for variable declarations; pg 91 VAR paramaters, pg 94 syntax for a parameter list. I also have "Pascal" by Chirlian from 1980 - same deal, different pages... 37 and 127. My pascal path began with Honeywell (they transitioned from assembler to Pascal in 1978, my third year with them), since then I have used Apple USCD, Microsoft ISO, MPW, CodeWarrior, and now Free Pascal. Somewhat focused on Mac, I must admit. Developed apps and even taught the language for a year... hence not one but two ready textbooks for references.... spooky. Here is a Mac Pascal file system read call illustrating several features: FUNCTION FSRead(refNum: INTEGER; VAR count: LONGINT; buffPtr: UNIV Ptr): OSErr; VAR indicates that count can be modified. The API documentation for FSRead describes "count" as both input as a number of bytes desired and output as the number of bytes actually read. The keyword UNIV is a Mac-Pascal extension to opaque the Ptr receiving the data. Of course, in today's implementations, one should first consider raising an exception rather than return an error. This call illustrates multiple (three) returned variables, one of type LONGINT, second, the modified contents of the memory block buffPtr is looking at and the third, an error code of type OSErr (an INTEGER). How did VAX declare variables? Gary On Mar 24, 2007, at 6:42 AM, Karen wrote: > > On Mar 24, 2007, at 6:00 AM, M Pulis wrote: > >> >> Yep... Pascal (1978 to present) here - works just as well as any >> coding... as long as intent is well documented, whether "BYREF" or >> "VAR" or "&", they mean the same, simply a parameter defined as >> capable of both input and output. >> > > > I used VAX Pascal in the 80's and I don't recall VAR and "&" > > > - Karen > _______________________________________________ > Unsubscribe or switch delivery mode: > <http://www.realsoftware.com/support/listmanager/> > > Search the archives: > <http://support.realsoftware.com/listarchives/lists.html> _______________________________________________ Unsubscribe or switch delivery mode: <http://www.realsoftware.com/support/listmanager/> Search the archives: <http://support.realsoftware.com/listarchives/lists.html>
