🚀 go-pugleaf

lins@Apple.COM (Chuck Lins ) writes:

>Since Guenter Dotzel showed how to do dymanic arrays in ISO Modula-2 I
>guess I should demonstrate the way it's done in Oberon(-2). The symbol
><type> shall be a metasyntactic entity representing any type.

>MODULE Quux;

>TYPE
>	OpenArray = POINTER TO ARRAY OF <type>;
>VAR
>	myArray : OpenArray;

>BEGIN
>    NEW(myArray, 100); (* for an array of 100 elements *)

>    (* use the array; e.g. *)
>    myArray[5] := <variable of <type>>;

>    (* when done using the variable you will want it garbage collected *)
>    myArray := NIL;
>END Quux.

>That's all there is. In Oberon(-2), these array are called "open arrays"
>to distinguish them from the dynamic arrays used in paramater passing.

THAT's what I was looking for.  The previous responses to my question
have, I think, confirmed the existence of a flaw in the design of
Modula-2.  Modula-2's inability to handle "dynamic arrays", by which I
mean arrays whose dimensions are not known at compile time, without
the support of a nonstandard user defined datatype is extremely
frustrating.  This flaw discouraged me from using Modula-2 in a
graphics project, which I'm now writing in C for lack of a better
alternative.  I am, however, examining DEC's Modula-3 language which
seems to lack the shortcomings of Modula-2 as well as provide lots of
new features including objects, threads, and garbage collection.