[fpc-pascal] dynamic array contents and system.move

[Florian Klaempfl]

Jürgen Hestermann schrieb:
> 
> 
>>> But currently move *does* handle dynamic arrays differently than
>>> other procedures.
>> It handles it exactly the same as any other function/procedure that
>> takes a untyped/formal "var" parameter. Formal var parameters always
>> take on the address of whatever you pass.
> 
> That's not true! There is a lot of ambigouity with dynamic arrays.
> Although an underlying pointer is used internally you use it as if it
> was the array this pointer is pointing to in your code. If you first
> have a static array "MyArray" then convert it to a dynamic array you
> don't have to change your code (except if you use fillchar and/or move).
> Why that? What exactly does "MyArray" mean? 

See below.

> You can't tell because it is
> context dependent. That's not in the spirit of Pascal.

File types are also less or more opaque. As soon as you start using
move/fillchar on them without knowing exactly what you do, you're in
trouble.

> 
> True. As I said: There is no common logic what the identifier "MyArray"
> means if it is a dynamic array (but there is for static arrays).

It means the whole array (which is an opaque type). No more no less.

> 
>> fillchar() and move() are equivalent to direct assembly level
>> programming as far as the abstraction level is concerned because they
>> ignore all type info. The fact that they ignore all type info is a mess.
> 
> It's true that it ignores all *type* info. Still there was no ambigouity
> about the starting address of a variable you give as parameter until
> dynamic arrays were introduced (including AnsiStrings).

The same applies to classes.