[fpc-pascal] Writeable typed constants - what's the point?

[Richard Ward]

On Jun 20, 2009, at 6:00 AM, David Noon wrote:

> I think it is more expressive to make the semantics clear by declaring
> an inconstant constant as a variable -- because that's what it is --

This semantic issue is very confusing for beginners including people  
who are migrating from a non Borland environment.  In my opinion also,  
the semantics should be changed to reflect the actual nature of the  
construct and behavior.   This would have saved me considerable time  
when I was trying to figure out why it that particular construct was  
there in the first place.  Again, imo, it would be better if someone  
who was migrating from Delphi, found that their FPC program didn't  
compile could look in the manual and make the global changes rather  
than have someone new introducing bugs into their programs because  
they were confused on the concept.   I also wager it would be at least  
a wash for the various mailing list moderators fielding questions from  
Delphi migraters vs. new programmers.   At least the Delphi migrators  
should (hopefully) have an understanding of the concept already.   And  
if they really didn't understand the concept, this would flush out the  
misconception.  - ROW