[fpc-pascal] Static Initialisation of Arrays

[spir]

On Mon, 28 Jun 2010 18:17:47 +0200
Jürgen Hestermann <juergen.hestermann at gmx.de> wrote:

> 
> 
> Paul Michell schrieb:
> > I realise that 'Array Of Single' declares a dynamic array, but is there 
> > any equivalent syntax for static data arrays in the same way that 
> > strings litterals are in effect, variable length static declarations.
> 
> You have to realize, that dynamic arrays are actually pointers (to the array and other administration data). So you cannot define anything to such arrays at declaration time because no memory is assigned to this pointer yet. You have to use setlength to assign memory at runtime (just as getmem would do) and only then you can fill it with data.

Sure, but this is just a matter of convention and support by a given compiler:
	type	Integers = array of Integer;
	var	ints : Integers = [1,2,3];
could work as expected by automatically sizing, allocating and initialising. How else could work languages that have an array/sequence/list literal notation?

Note that this is not much different from
	var 	text : String = "abc";
since string vars must indeed be kinds of (pointed) dynamic arrays, I guess... (Or am I wrong on this?)

The burden caused by the absence of such a notation for dynamic arrays is something we can accept and get used to; what advantage does it bring? It forces initialisation to be written in loops (if the content nicely follows a pattern) or sequences of element assignemnts (else). Maybe it's only me?


Denis
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