🚀 go-pugleaf

Right, you just ditch the ancillary pointer arithmetic entirely,
using the array.

I don't think you can avoid a pointer entirely, though.  Specifically,

type BufType  = RECORD
   length: CARDINAL;
   text: ARRAY CARDINAL OF CHAR;
  END;

But then:

VAR
  buf: BufType;

This will try to create a huge, static data object.  What you must do instead
is cast a smaller (ALLOCATEd) data object as an object of type BufType, and
the only way to do this is with a pointer, per my original message.

Steph