[fpc-pascal] named parameter

[Michael Van Canneyt]

On Sat, 27 May 2017, Sven Barth via fpc-pascal wrote:

> 2017-05-27 9:54 GMT+02:00 Michael Van Canneyt <michael at freepascal.org>:
>>
>>
>> On Sat, 27 May 2017, Mr Bee via fpc-pascal wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> As Pascal mostly well known as a safe, easy to read, and elegant language,
>>> don't you think Pascal needs named parameter? I mean for ALL kind of
>>> parameters, not just for Variants. When you have a function with many
>>> parameters having default values, you know that named parameter is
>>> desirable. For example:
>>>
>>> function f(p1: string = ''; p2: integer = 0; p3: boolean = false);
>>>
>>> But you only need to supply the third parameter, you still must supply the
>>> first and second ones with appropriate default values, like this:
>>>
>>> f('', 0, true);
>>>
>>> while with named parameter, you can do this:
>>>
>>> f(p3 := true);
>>>
>>> I believe it would raise Pascal's code readability. I know it has been
>>> discussed before. I know somehow the parser had been able to read such
>>> syntax. So, why don't we have the option to enable it for people who want
>>> it? Kinda a syntax switch mode.
>>>
>>> What do you think? :)
>>
>>
>>
>> Opinions on what constitutes readable code clearly differ :)
>>
>> But as far as I know, the parser is not able to read this syntax ?
>
> The parser supports it for dispatch calls on variants (both methods
> and properties). You even wrote that in your own article about Word
> automation: https://www.freepascal.org/~michael/articles/word/word.pdf
> ;)

Yes, in Delphi. But I didn't know FPC also supports it ?

Michael.