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@pageheading()
This document is an introduction to DECSYSTEM-20 and DECsystem-10
Pascal. This Pascal system
is the result of cooperation among a number of different people.
It was originally written at the University of Hamburg by
a group of people under the supervision of Prof. H.-H. Nagel.
This version was developed from Prof. Nagel's by Charles Hedrick,
and is maintained by him.
Lee Cooprider and others at the University of Southern California have
been particularly helpful in supplying improvements, largely to the
debugger.
A number of compiler bug fixes were
supplied by Andrew Hisgen at Carnegie-Mellon University.
This system is intended to be a complete implementation of the
Pascal language, as defined in the Revised Report (Jensen and Wirth).
The following are the only serious limitations.
A complete list will be found in an appendix.
@begin(itemize)
A procedure can be passed as a parameter to another procedure.
When you call a procedure that has been passed in this way,
you can supply no more than 5 parameters.
Sets of character are not fully implemented. This is because
sets can have only 72 elements, and there are 128 ASCII characters.
As a compromise, lower case
letters are treated as equivalent to the corresponding
upper case letter when in a set. All control characters
except tab are treated as equivalent in a set.
@end(itemize)
This implementation includes a number of extra facilities,
giving you access to the full power of the operating system.
Only the most important of these additions will be described
in this manual. There is a complete reference manual,
which you should consult if you need information not
given here.
@chapter(How to compile and execute your program.)
@section(How to use the normal compiler)
This section describes how to use Pascal on the DECsystem-10, and
on those DECSYSTEM-20 systems where the EXEC has been modified
to know about Pascal. If you are using a DECSYSTEM-20 whose
EXEC has not been modified, there is a special version of PASCAL
that you can use instead of the EXECUTE command.
Suppose you have a Pascal program called TEST that you want to execute.
You must first put the program into the computer as a text file.
You will do this using a text editor, several of which exist. Generally
you should choose a file name ending with .PAS, since the extension PAS
tells the system that it is a PASCAL program. Let us assume that your
source program is stored in a file TEST.PAS
To execute a program, use the EXECUTE command. You give this
command the name
of the file in which the source program is stored. For example, to compile
and execute a Pascal program stored in the file TEST.PAS, you would
issue the command
@begin(display)
EXECUTE TEST.PAS
@end(display)
You can use the usual COMPIL switches, such as /NOBIN, /LIST, and /CREF.
See the Command Reference Manual for a description of these switches, as
well as of the COMPIL, DEBUG, and LOAD commands.
Here is what happens when you issue an EXECUTE command.
The first step is for the Pascal compiler to compile
your program. The compiler reads your source file
and produces a relocatable binary file as output.
For example, if your source file is called TEST.PAS, the compiler would
produce a binary file called TEST.REL. The compiler always uses the
name of your source file, with the extension .REL in place of the
original extension .PAS. You do not need to worry about what is in this
binary file. It contains a form of your program that the system can
execute more easily.
The second step in the EXECUTE command is loading your program.
The linking loader (LINK) reads the binary form of your program
(the .REL file), and loads it into memory.
The final step in the EXECUTE command is the actual execution of
your program. Before it begins the main body of your program,
the Pascal runtime system will ask you what files you want to use as
input and output. It will ask you about each each Pascal file
variable listed in your PROGRAM statement. For example, if your PROGRAM
statement looks like this
@begin(display)
PROGRAM TEST(INPUT,OUTPUT)
@end(display)
here is the resulting dialog. In the following, the computer's
output is in upper case, and your input is in lower case.
@begin(display)
INPUT : data.in
OUTPUT : data.out
@end(display)
This example assumes that you want input to be from a file called
DATA.IN, and output to be to a file called DATA.OUT. Of course
you can type any file name.
In the most common case, you want to
use the terminal for input and output. You could specify this
by typing TTY: as a file name. Because it is so common to use
the terminal for the files INPUT and OUTPUT, TTY: is the
default for these files. That is, if you simply type a carriage return
in place of a file name for INPUT and OUTPUT, the terminal
will be used.
@begin(display)
INPUT :
OUTPUT :
[INPUT, end with ^Z: ]
@end(display)
The message "[INPUT, end with ^Z]" is printed by the Pascal I/O
system to tell you that the program is ready for its first line
of input. A more detailed discussion of the timing of input
is given below.
Note that INPUT and OUTPUT are just examples of Pascal file variables.
If your PROGRAM statement lists a different set of
file variables, then Pascal will ask about them instead of INPUT and
OUTPUT. If your program does not read any input, you should not put
any input file in the PROGRAM statement.
If you do not want Pascal to ask the user about file names at all, you
should just leave out the PROGRAM statement completely. However in
this case you will need to build the file names into the program,
as described below.
Here is an example of the way things will look on your terminal
when you execute a Pascal program on a DECSYSTEM-20. The at sign
shown is the system's prompt. You do not type it. You type only what
is in lower case. Things after the ! are explanatory comments.
@begin(display)
@@execute test.pas
PASCAL: TEST ! Pascal compiler produces TEST.REL
LINK: LOADING ! LINK loads TEST.REL
[LNKXCT TEST EXECUTION] ! Your program is now started
INPUT : in.file ! You tell it what files to use
OUTPUT : out.file
@@ ! Your program is finished.
@end(display)
On a DECsystem-10, the prompt will be a dot instead of an at
sign, and you will see "EXIT" when your program is finished.
@section(Compiler switches)
This section discusses some of the more useful options in the
compiler. You can specify these options when you compile
the program, or you can build the specifications into the
program itself. For example, to turn off checking for
arithmetic exceptions you could specify /NOARITHCHECK when you
compile the program, or put the specification {$A-} into the
program.
To include an option in the program, you simply include a
comment containing the specification in your program. The
comment must begin with $ and then contain a list of specification,
separated by commas. + turns on an option and - turns it off.
E.g. consider the following
@begin(display)
{$A-,Z+}
PROGRAM TEST(INPUT,OUTPUT)
....
@end(display)
This will turn off the A option and turn on the Z option. In
most cases this should be done before the program statement,
although many of the specifiers can be put anywhere in the
program.
Here is an example of how you specify options
when compiling the program:
@begin(display)
Tops-20:
one option, /NOARITH
EXEC TEST.PAS/LANG:"/NOARITH"
more than one option, /NOARITH and /ZERO
EXEC TEST.PAS/LANG:"/NOARITH/ZERO"
Tops-10:
one option, /NOARITH
EXEC TEST.PAS(NOARITH)
more than one option, /NOARITH and /ZERO
EXEC TEST.PAS(NOARITH/ZERO)
@end(display)
Note that these options will only take effect if the program
is compiled. If you do not see a message like
@begin(display)
PASCAL: TEST
@end(display)
it means that your program did not need to be recompiled.
A binary file left from a previous compilation was used instead,
so you end up with whatever options were in effect during that
earlier compilation. To force a new compilation, specify
/COMPILE, e.g.
@begin(display)
Tops-20:
EXEC/COMPILE TEST.PAS/LANG:"/NOARITH"
Tops-10:
EXEC/COMPILE TEST.PAS(NOARITH)
@end(display)
Here is a list of the most useful of the options. For a complete
list, see the full reference manual. Some of these options are
noted as being the "default". This means that they are in
effect unless you specifically turn them off. Note that the
form with the slash can be abbreviated by using any unique abbreviation.
@begin(description)
/ARITHCHECK {$A+} [DEFAULT] This causes your program to check for
arithmetic exceptions. An arithmetic exception is
any case where an arithmetic operation gives the wrong results.
These include division by zero, and production of values too large
(overflow) or too small (underflow) for the computer to store.
When one of these problems occurs, your program will print an
error message. If you are using a debugger, it will be activated
after the error message is printed. If you are not, your
program will simply stop. You can continue execution of your program
by typing CONTINUE, although you should not place too much faith in
any answer produced once an error has happened.
/NOARITHCHECK {$A-} Turn off checking for arithmetic exceptions, as
described above.
/CHECK {$C+} [DEFAULT] This causes your program to check for various
conditions that would make its execution be invalid. It turns on
the same checks that are turned on by /ARITHCHECK. In addition,
your program will check all array subscripts to see that they are
within the size declared for the array. It will check assignments
to subrange variables to see that the new value is within the limits
defined for the subrange. And it will check use of pointer variables
to see to it that you do not attempt to follow a pointer that is
NIL or zero. (Usually a zero pointer is the result of using a
pointer variable that has not been initialized.) If the program
detects an error, it acts as described under /ARITHCHECK above.
/NOCHECK {$C-} Turn off checking for errors, as described above.
/DEBUG {$D+} [DEFAULT] This causes the binary form of your
program (.REL file) to contain information about your program
that is needed by the debugger. You must have this option turned
on in order to use the debugger. This information takes up space
in your program. So large programs that are going to be used
many times will sometimes be compiled without this information,
to save space.
/NODEBUG {$D-} Do not include debugging information with
your program.
/ZERO {$Z+} This causes your program to initialize all local
variables to 0. Also, NEW will initialize all
records it generates to 0. This is very helpful when you
are trying to debug a program that deals with pointers.
It guarantees that any pointer variables you forget to
initialize in your program will be zero. This will allow any attempt
to use them to
be caught by the error-handling code compiled by the
/CHECK option. This option affects only variables that are
local to procedures. Global variables (variables declared
at the outer level of your program) are always initialized
to zero when your program is first loaded. However if you
restart your program once it has been run once, global
variables will not be reinitialized.
/NOZERO {$Z-} [DEFAULT] Do not initialize local variables
to 0.
@end(description)
@chapter<How to Write a Program (Lexical Issues)>
This chapter will describe the character set used by this compiler.
This section may be summarized very simply: You can type your
program just as it appears in most Pascal textbooks and manuals.
You can write a PASCAL program using any of the printable ASCII characters,
including lower case. Control characters are not legal in a source
program under normal circumstances.
You can write your program in either upper case or lower case -
they are consider as equivalent. Thus the variables ABC, abc,
and AbC are the same. Of course in quoted strings (string constants),
the compiler leaves characters as you type them.
In standard Pascal, comments are enclosed in { and }.
Because some textbooks use (* and *) or /* and */, these are
also accepted. However the pairs must match. I.e. don't try
{comment*).
For example
@begin(display)
{This is an official comment}
(*This is a comment*)
(*This comment would end here } under the new ISO
standard, but in the current version it ends here *)
@end(display)
The pair % and \ are also present in the compiler. However they are
now considered out of date, so you should not use them.
You may write identifiers using the underline character to
improve readability, e.g.:
@begin(display)
NEW_NAME
@end(display)
Strings are character sequences enclosed in single quotes, e.g.:
@begin(display)
'This is a string'
@end(display)
If you want to put a quote in a string, use two quotes, e.g.:
@begin(display)
'Isn''t PASCAL fun?'
@end(display)
Note that lower case and upper case are kept separate in strings.
You can write an integer in octal form by putting a B after it.
You can write it in hexadecimal form by putting a " in front of it.
For example, the following all represent the same number:
@begin(display)
63 77B "3F
@end(display)
Several PASCAL operators have an alternate representation. The
alternate form is provided for compatibility with older versions
of PASCAL. In new programs, you should use the form of the operator
shown in the left column.
@begin(display)
operator alternate form explanation
>= " greater or equal
<= @@ less or equal
AND & logical and
OR ! logical or
NOT $ logical negation
<> # not equal
+ OR,! set union
* AND,& set intersection
@end(display)
@chapter(Input/Output)
This section is provided for two reasons. First, existing textbooks
and manuals are often somewhat ambiguous about Input/Output.
Second, this version of Pascal has some special features
that will make your life a bit easier.
@section(Standard Files)
The files INPUT and OUTPUT are called "standard files", because they
are built into the language. If you use any other files, you
must declare the file variables in the VAR section of your program.
INPUT and OUTPUT should not be declared in the VAR section, since
they are already builtin ("predeclared"). In addition to being
predeclared, INPUT and OUTPUT have the following special properties:
@begin(itemize)
INPUT and OUTPUT are default files for READ and WRITE. E.g.
READ(X,Y) really means READ(INPUT,X,Y) and WRITE(X,Y) really
means WRITE(OUTPUT,X,Y). If you wanted to use any other file,
you would have to mention it by name in every READ and WRITE statement
referring to it.
INPUT and OUTPUT are automatically opened if they are mentioned
in the PROGRAM statement. If you want to use any other file, you
have to open it by RESET (for reading) or REWRITE (for writing).
@end(itemize)
The net effect of this is that you can just say READ(X) in your
program. You do not have to do any declarations or file openning,
as long as you mention INPUT in the PROGRAM statement.
In addition to the standard files INPUT and OUTPUT the standard
file TTY is available in this implementation. You may use this file
to communicate with the terminal. Most users will not need to use
TTY, since INPUT and OUTPUT will also default to the terminal.
TTY is provided mostly for compatibility with older versions of
the compiler, where terminal I/O via INPUT and OUTPUT was
somewhat inconvenient.
As with INPUT and OUTPUT, you do not need to declare TTY in the
VAR section of your program. Because it always describes the terminal,
you also do not need to (indeed you should not) mention TTY in the PROGRAM
statement. The purpose of the program statement
is to specify which files the system should ask you about when your
program starts. Since TTY is always associated with your terminal,
it obviously serves no purpose to ask about it.
PASCAL automatically opens TTY with a builtin RESET and REWRITE before
starting your program. So as with INPUT and OUTPUT you need not (indeed
should not) include RESET and REWRITE statements for TTY.
When you want to READ or WRITE from TTY, you must explicitly mention
it as the first argument to READ or WRITE. Otherwise INPUT
or OUTPUT will be used by default.
WARNING: TTY is automatically opened in interactive mode.
See the section "The first line of input from INPUT or TTY"
for an explanation of what this means.
To summarize, here is a table of special properties of the
various files:
@begin(display)
INPUT&OUTPUT TTY others
Must be listed in
PROGRAM statement Y N Y
if used.
Must be declared in N N Y
the VAR section.
Must be RESET or N N Y
REWRITE'n before use
Must be mentioned as N Y Y
first arg to READ or
WRITE
@end(display)
@section(Other ways of specifying a file name)
Most of the time, you will list all of the files you are going to
use in the PROGRAM statement. The effect of including a file in
the PROGRAM statement is
@begin(itemize)
to specify that Pascal should ask the user for a file name for that
file when your programs starts.
for INPUT and OUTPUT only, to specify that the system should
automatically open the file when your program starts. (TTY is always opened,
and other files must be opened by RESET or REWRITE).
@end(itemize)
Sometimes it is not desirable to have your program ask the user for file
names in that way. In such cases, the file should not be mentioned in the
PROGRAM statement. If you do not specify a file in the PROGRAM
statement, there are two ways of determining its file name. The most
common is to specify the file name as the (optional) second argument
to RESET or REWRITE. E.g. if you always want INPUT to refer to the file
BASIC.DAT, you might omit INPUT from the PROGRAM statement and then
start your program with
@begin(display)
RESET(INPUT,'BASIC.DAT')
@end(display)
You can also use a variable as the second argument. This variable
should be a PACKED ARRAY OF CHAR, of any size. It will contain
the file name.
If you do not list a file in the PROGRAM statement, and you do not
specify a file name for the RESET or REWRITE, the file will be
classified as an "internal" file. Such files are intended for
use as working storage within your program.
They are automatically deleted when the program exits from the block
in which the Pascal file variable was declared.
@section(Details about terminal I/O)
By far the most confusing thing about Pascal I/O is the way
it treats terminals. There are two problems: the fact that
the language insists on reading the first line before the
program starts, and the strange effects of READLN. Let us
consider these separately.
@subsection(The first line of input from INPUT and TTY)
Let us start with a simple case, where you just want to read
several numbers and then print a result based on them.
This is easy to do. You can simply issue a READ statement
for each number, and then a WRITE statement for the result.
The program will do more or less what you would expect:
@begin(display)
@@execute test.pas
PASCAL: TEST
LINK: LOADING
[LNKXCT TEST EXECUTION]
INPUT :
OUTPUT :
[INPUT, end with ^Z: ]
1
2
3
^Z
The sum is 6
@end(display)
The problem comes when you want to type out something before doing
the first read, e.g.
@begin(display)
PLEASE TYPE X: 12.3
PLEASE TYPE Y: 548
@end(display)
If you attempt to write a program that does this, you will soon
find out that Pascal will ask for the first line of input from the
terminal before it gives you a chance to write out the prompt "PLEASE TYPE X".
This is because of a problem with the definition of the Pascal
language. It is not a "bug" in the system. The easiest way for
a beginner to "solve" this
problem is this: Have your program ignore the first line of input.
You can then instruct your user to type a carriage return (i.e. a
blank line) as soon as the I/O system requests input by
saying "[INPUT, end with ^Z: ]". Once your user has satisfied the
initial input request, your program can type out its request, and
the user can then proceed to type the first real line of input.
The only problem this introduces is that you
must make sure that your program discards that dummy
blank line. But that is usually easy:
@begin(itemize)
If the first READ statement is reading into a numerical variable,
there is no problem, since READ skips carriage returns and spaces
until it finds something.
If you are reading in some other way, just use READLN to throw
away the dummy blank line and get the first real line. E.g.
@begin(display)
begin
write('Please type a magic character: ');
readln; read(magic_char);
@end(display)
The definition of READLN is: throw away the rest of the current line
and read in the next line. So this discards the dummy line and
gets the line that the user typed in response to the message.
Of course the READLN must be done AFTER the WRITE. Since READLN
actually reads a new line, you should do it after you have told
the user what you want him to type.
@end(itemize)
If you don't like the idea of telling your users to begin all their
programs by typing a carriage return, it is possible to ask the
system to supply an end of line automatically at the beginning of
the program. To do this put :/ after INPUT in the PROGRAM statement.
E.g.
@begin(display)
PROGRAM TEST(INPUT:/,OUTPUT)
@end(display)
This completely solves the problem of the startup. You can think
of INPUT:/ as simulating an initial carriage return from the user.
(Actually a null is put in INPUT^, but EOLN is set, so it is
treated as an end of line.) The only disadvantage of INPUT:/
is that your program is no longer standard Pascal.
This feature is only available on the DECSYSTEM-10/20 and CDC
Cyber implementations of Pascal. If you have to write interactive
programs which will run on several versions of Pascal, we recommend
that you use :/ on this implementation, and instruct your users to
type an initial carriage-return on implementations not having
this feature or some equivalent feature. Several other implementations
have completely different, but equally valid, ways of solving the
problems of interactive terminal I/O.
Note that :/ only has an effect for the file INPUT. However INPUT is
the only file for which the problem arises, because INPUT and TTY are the only
input files that are opened before your program starts. TTY is
always opened in a mode corresponding to INPUT:/.
@subsection(Odd effects for READLN)
The other thing you must beware of with terminal input is READLN.
READLN(X) is defined as reading
X and then going to a new line. Going to a new line means
throwing away any data on the current line that may not have
been read yet and then getting a new line from the terminal.
Suppose you want to write a program to read 4 numbers, one to a line,
and print their sum. Most textbooks will suggest to use the
following:
@begin(display)
{Wrong code}
readln(x);
readln(y);
readln(z);
readln(w);
writeln(x+y+z+w);
@end(display)
This would work on cards. The problem on a terminal is with that last
READLN(W). It would read a number and then ask for a new line. So your user
would be forced to type one extra line after the one with W on it.
If you must use READLN (often there is no reason to), you should do it
at the beginning of each line, e.g.
@begin(display)
{right code}
readln; read(x);
readln; read(y);
readln; read(z);
readln; read(w);
writeln(x+y+z+w);
@end(display)
Each READLN throws away any junk left over from a previous line and
gets a new one, which will be used by the following READ. Note
that this style is compatible with the suggestion we made
in the previous section. We suggested above that you specify
INPUT:/ or instruct the user to type a dummy carriage return
at the start of the program. The style shown above has an
extra READLN at the beginning of the program, which will
throw away that dummy end of line.
Here is another example, this time of a dialog with the user.
Note that the same style works for this program:
@begin(display)
begin
write('Please type X: ');
readln; read(x);
write('Please type Y and Z: ');
readln; read(y,z);
write('Please type A');
readln; read(a);
@end(display)
Again, READLN gets you to a new line, so you want to do it after
writing the prompt for the line and before actually reading the
data on it. If you made a mistake and used READLN(X) instead of
READLN; READ(X), your program would
try to read the line with Y and Z on it before
typing out the prompt asking for Y and Z. Again, this example assumes
that the user is instructed to type a carriage return at the
beginning of the program, or that INPUT:/ is used in the PROGRAM
statement. The first READLN then throws away the dummy carriage
return or end of line and gets the first real line.
@subsection(Summary of how to do it right)
If all of this has managed to confuse you, try looking at this
summary. Here is all you have to do to make terminal I/O
work right:
@begin(itemize)
Use INPUT:/ in the PROGRAM statement, to avoid having to
type the first line of input before the system starts your program.
Use READLN at the beginning of each line, not at the end.
@end(itemize)
Here is a complete example:
@begin(display)
program demo(input:/,output);
var x,y,z:real;
begin
write('Please type x');
readln; read(x);
write('Please type y and z');
readln; read(y,z);
writeln('The sum of the numbers is ',x+y+z)
end.
@end(display)
@section(Formatted Output)
@label(write)
In this section we will discuss formatted output. Most
textbooks describe this correctly. We are discussing it
because some of the details are left up to the implementor,
so we need to tell you what has been done in this
implementation. Also, we have added
octal and hexadecimal output.
When you write out a value using a WRITE (or WRITELN)
statement, you can either let Pascal choose an output
format, or you can specify the format yourself. You
specify the format yourself by putting the format
definition after the value that you are writing.
For example
@begin(display)
WRITE(I:4,X:8:2,(I*X)/3:I+1:J)
@end(display)
In this example, I, X, and (I*X)/3 are values being written
out, and :4, :8:2, and :I+1:J specify the output format.
Here are examples of all the legal output formats:
@begin(display)
X : 4
X : 8 : 2
X : 4 : O
X : 5 : H
@end(display)
X is an example of a value that is being written out.
The number after the first colon is called the "field
width". This lets you specify how much space will be
used to write out the value. If the value would normally take fewer
characters than this, blanks
will be put in front of it. For example, 23:4 will be
written as "@ @ 23". Notice that two blanks are put
in front of the 23, in order to take up 4 characters, as specified.
The field width can be any expression that results in
a positive integer.
If you do not specify a format, the following default
fields widths will be used:
@begin(display)
INTEGER 12
BOOLEAN 6
CHAR 1
REAL 16
STRING length of string
@end(display)
Sometimes a value will turn out to take more space
than you anticipated. If a value takes more
space than is allowed for by the field width,
here is what happens:
@begin(display)
INTEGER(normal) field width increased to fit
INTEGER(octal) least significant digits
INTEGER(hex) least significant digits
REAL field width increased to fit
BOOLEAN field width increased to fit
STRING leftmost characters
@end(display)
"field width increased to fit" means that the entire
value will be printed out, even if it takes more
space than you specified. "least significant digits"
means that characters will be chopped off the beginning
of the number until it fits into the amount of space you
specified. "leftmost characters" means that characters
will be chopped off the end of the string until it
fits into the amount of space you specified.
Many people like to use a field width of 1 when
printing integers. If you do this, Pascal will use
exactly as many characters as it needs to for each
number.
For real numbers, the field width you give
controls the number of digits after the decimal
point. The smallest field width that makes sense
for a real number is 9. If you specify 9, you
will get a number that looks like "@ -1.1E-23". As you
increase the field width, you will get more digits
after the decimal point. E.g. a field width of 11
might give "@ -1.123E-23". This keeps up until
there are 6 digits after the decimal point, for a total
of 7 digits. Since this computer only has 7 digits of
precision, any additional space you ask for is taken up by
extra blanks in front of the number. E.g a
field width of 16 might give "@ @ @ -1.123456E-23".
If a number has more significant digits than you have asked
for, it is rounded at the last digit printed.
@begin(display)
Example: WRITELN('STR':4, 'STR', 'STR':2, -12.0:10);
WRITELN(15:9, TRUE, FALSE:4, 'X':3);
@end(display)
The following character sequence will be printed (colons
represent blanks):
@begin(display)
:STRSTRST -1.20E+01
:::::::15::TRUEFALSE::X
@end(display)
(Note that the field width for FALSE has been expanded in
order to fit in the output.)
Many people prefer to print real numbers in the form
"@ 123.45", instead of the usual "@ 1.2345E+02". This
format requires you to specify two things: the total
field width, and the number of digits after the
decimal point. Thus you use two colons to specify a
format of this kind, e.g. "X:6:2". The number after the first colon
is the field width, as usual. The number after the second
colon is the number of digits to use after the decimal point.
It can be any expression that results in a positive integer.
You will always get exactly that many digits
after the decimal point. If you do not specify enough
digits after the decimal point, some numbers may show up
as zero. Pascal will use as many digits in front of the
decimal point as are required for the number you are writing out.
It will also put one blank before the number. Additional
blanks will be used before the number as needed, to fill up the space
requested by your field width specification. (If you do not
want any fill, you can specify a field width of 1.)
If a number has more significant figures than you have asked for,
it is rounded at the last digit printed. Since this computer
only keeps 7 significant digits, numbers will be rounded to 7
digits even if more digits than that are printed.
@begin(display)
Example: WRITELN(1.23:5:2, 1.23:4:1, 1.23:6:0);
WRITELN(1.23:4:3, 123456123456:0:0);
@end(display)
The following character sequence will be printed (colons
represent blanks):
@begin(display)
:1.23:1.2::::1.
:1.230:123456100000.
@end(display)
The :1.230 is a result of automatic format expansion, since the
specified 4 spaces was not enough. The 123456100000 shows that
numbers will be rounded after 7 significant digits.
You can ask for an integer to be printed in octal or hexadecimal
form. To do this, specify O or H after a second colon.
If the field width is big enough to allow it, numbers are
always printed using 12 octal digits, or 9 hexadecimal
digits. If you specify a field width smaller than this,
the rightmost digits are used.
If you specify a field width larger than this, an
appropriate number of blanks are used before the number.
@begin(display)
Example: WRITE(12345B:2:O, 12345B:6:O, 12345B:15:O);
WRITE(12345B:2:H, 12345B:6:H, 12345B:15:H);
@end(display)
The following character sequence will be printed (colons
represent blanks):
@begin(display)
45012345:::000000012345
E50014E5::::::0000014E5
@end(display)
@section(Reading characters)
@label(charproc)
@subsection(Turning end of lines into blanks)
A Pascal program can read any character except null (0).
However the Pascal language definition requires the
system to "censor" end of line characters by showing them as blanks.
That is, when Pascal reads a carriage return from the file INPUT,
what shows up in the buffer variable, INPUT^, is a blank.
There obviously needs to be some way for you to know that what
appears to be a blank is really an end of line. This is the purpose
of the special function EOLN. If EOLN is true, it tells you that
what looks like a blank in the input buffer variable is really
an end of line (probably a carriage return).
The Pascal language considers an end of line to be a single
character. So when EOLN is true, a single GET will read the
first character on the next line. This is true even though
most lines on a DECsystem-10 or DECSYSTEM-20 end with a carriage-return
followed by a line feed. That is, when the file is positioned at
a carriage return, the next GET skips the following line feed,
and reads the first character on the next line. (Of course when
the file is positioned at a carriage return, what you see in
the buffer is a blank.)
There are five different characters that can end a line:
carriage return, line feed, escape, form feed (^L), and control-Z(^Z).
Sometimes you need to know which particular end of line character
actually appeared. In this case, you can RESET the file in
a special mode. This mode turns off Pascal's "end of line censor", and
causes the actual end of line character to appear in the input buffer,
instead of the usual blank. When this mode is in effect, you can still
check whether the buffer contains an end of line character by using
EOLN. Indeed this is the recommended practice. However in this mode
carriage return is treated as a single character, separate from the line
feed. So if a line ends with carriage-return followed by line feed,
you would need two GET's to advance to the beginning of the next
line. For this reason READLN is recommended as the safest way to
get to the beginning of the next line. READLN will always get to
the first character of the next line, no matter how the line
ends. To open a file in the mode where you see the end of line character,
specify /E in the options string used in the RESET. For example
@begin(display)
RESET(INFILE,'FOO.BAR','/E')
RESET(INFILE,'','/E')
@end(display)
Normally Pascal opens the file INPUT for you automatically.
To make Pascal's automatic open use '/E', you should specify
INPUT:# in the PROGRAM statement. The # can be combined
with a / if you want INPUT opened interactively. E.g.
@begin(display)
PROGRAM TEST(INPUT:#/,OUTPUT)
@end(display)
You may also request the special file TTY to be opened with '/E'
by listing TTY:# in your PROGRAM statement. This
is the only reason for listing TTY in a PROGRAM statment.
TTY is always opened, even if you don't list it. So the only
reason for listing it is if you want to specify a special option.
'/E' and :# are extensions. That is, they are not present in
implementations of Pascal on other computers. So do not use either of them
if you want your program to be transportable to other systems.
@subsection(Reading strings)
This implementation allows you to read a whole sequence of characters
at once with a single READ or READLN. In the simplest case, you
might ask to read an entire line into a single PACKED ARRAY of CHAR.
More complex capabilities are also available, modelled after
SAIL's very fine string input routines. An example
of the full syntax is
@begin(display)
read(input,array1:howmany:['@ ',':'])
@end(display)
This will read characters into the array ARRAY1 until one of three things
happens:
@begin(itemize)
One of the characters mentioned in the "break set" (in this case
blank or colon) is read. This character (the "break character") is
not put into the array. You can find it by looking at INPUT^, since
this always contains the next character that will be read by READ.
HOWMANY is set to the number of characters actually put into the array.
Any integer variable could be used in place of HOWMANY.
End of line is reached in the input. Again, HOWMANY is set to the
number of characters put into the array. You can tell that this
is what happened because EOLN(INPUT) will be true.
The array is filled. In this case, INPUT^ is the character that would
have overflowed the array. You can tell that this is what happened
because HOWMANY is set to one more than the size of the array in
this case.
@end(itemize)
If the read operation stopped before the end of the array,
the rest of the array is cleared to blanks.
If you don't need a break set, you can leave it out. You would use
this simpler form of READ if you just wanted to read into the
array until it fills or you get to the end of a line. Here is
an example of this form of READ: READ(S:I).
If you don't want to know how many characters were actually read,
you can also leave out the integer variable. This would leave
you with a statement that looked like READ(S). The READ operation
works the same way whether you put in an integer variable or not.
If you don't put it in, you just don't know how many characters
were read.
WARNING: The integer variable used with READ looks a lot like
the field width specification used with WRITE. Please do not
confuse these two things. READ(X:I) does not specify a field width
of I. Rather it asks for I to be set by the read operation to show
how many characters were actually read.
@subsection(Turning lower case into upper case)
You can ask Pascal to turn all lower case letters it reads into
the equivalent upper case letter. You do this on a file by file
basis, when you open the file. Here are two examples:
@begin(display)
RESET(INFILE,'MY.DATA','/U')
RESET(INFILE,'','/U')
@end(display)
The /U specifies conversion to upper case. The second argument
to RESET is optional. It lets you specify the file name to be used in
the RESET. The second example above shows how to leave out this
argument.
@Chapter(Core Allocation)
Except on a KA-10 running Tops-10, PASCAL has dynamic core allocation.
This means that memory will automatically expand if you do NEW a lot, or
use a large stack. Thus if you get a message informing you that you
have run out of core, it means that you used all of your virtual memory
space. In such a case, you will probably want to reconsider your data
structures or algorithms. Even if you do not get this message,
large-scale use of NEW can turn your program into a memory hog, slowing
it down and causing unfriendly scowls in your direction from the system
staff.
If your program uses NEW, you can probably reduce its memory usage by
using DISPOSE. DISPOSE is applicable only to pointers to objects gotten
by NEW. It frees the space used by an object that you no longer need.
DISPOSE(P) assumes that P is a pointer, and will return the object to
which P points. P is set to NIL.
@chapter(Extensions to PASCAL)
This version of Pascal has a number of useful extensions. However many
of them are of interest primarily to system programmers. In the
interests of reducing the complexity of this manual, only a few of
the more important extensions are described here. You should consult
the complete reference manual if you are interested in a full
list. You should feel free to skip any or all of this chapter, if
it does not seem to be relevant to you.
@section(Extended CASE Statement)
In standard Pascal, you must list every case that can happen in a CASE
statement. If a case comes up that you have not listed, the effect is
undefined. This implementation allows you to define what will happen
when cases come up that you have not listed. To do this, use the
special case OTHERS. This case will be executed if the control
expression does not match any of the other cases. If you use OTHERS, it
must be the last case listed.
Here is an example of how you might use OTHERS. X is assumed to
be a variables of type CHAR.
@begin(display)
CASE X OF
'A' : WRITELN('VALUE IS A');
'B' : WRITELN('VALUE IS B');
OTHERS : WRITELN('VALUE IS NEITHER A NOR B')
END %CASE STATEMENT\
@end(display)
@section(LOOP Statement)
Standard Pascal provides only two rather limited kinds of
loops. WHILE makes its test at the beginning. REPEAT
makes its test at the end. This implementation provides
LOOP, a statement that allows you to put the test
anywhere within the loop.
The LOOP statement has the following syntax:
@begin(display)
<loop statement> ::= LOOP
<statement> [; <statement> ]
EXIT IF <expression> ;
<statement> [; <statement> ]
END
@end(display)
The expression must result in a Boolean value. Note that there must
be exactly one EXIT IF in each LOOP. It must not occur
inside any other statement.
@section(Extra control over file I/O)
@label(open)
This implementation supplies you with a number of optional
features that you can use when you do I/O. Most of
these features are controlled by two extra arguments to RESET and
REWRITE. In standard Pascal, RESET and REWRITE take only one argument,
the Pascal file identifier. Here is an example of a RESET that
uses the extra arguments in order to take advantage of features present
only in this implementation:
@begin(display)
RESET(INFILE,'TEST.DAT','/I/U/E')
@end(display)
@begin(description)
INFILE This is the Pascal file variable. It represents the file
throughout the rest of your program. You must have declared
it in the VAR section as FILE OF something.
'TEST.DAT' This is the file name. You should specify the
file name in this way if you want the program to determine
the name of the file. If you want to ask the user for the
name of the file, it is better to list the file in the PROGRAM
statement. Pascal will ask the user automatically about every file
listed in the PROGRAM statement. Usually it does not make sense
to list a file in the PROGRAM statement and to supply a file name
in RESET and REWRITE. This argument is either
a name in quotes or a variable (of type PACKED ARRAY OF CHAR) containing
a file name. You can use '' to indicate that you are not supplying
a file name. This would be useful if you want to specify the
third argument but not the second.
'/I/U/E' This is the option string. It allows you to specify
various details about how the file will be processed. It consists
of a number of letters. Each of them is an abbreviation for an option
that you want to select. Each letter must be preceeded by a slash. The
most common options will be described below.
@end(description)
Here are the options that you can specify in the option string:
@begin(description)
/B:nn Byte size specification. Input and output is done in bytes.
In a text file, Pascal uses one byte in the file for each character
read or written. If you do not specify the byte size, Pascal will
use a byte size of 7 for text files. This is what other system
software uses. In any file other than a text file, Pascal uses
one byte in the file for each word in the file component. If
you do specify the byte size, Pascal will use a byte size of 36 bits
for these files. This will allow your data to be stored exactly
as it appears in memory. If you specify a byte size, Pascal will
use it. You should do this only if you have a clear idea of
how items of data are going to appear in the file. 8 bit bytes are
sometimes useful when dealing with industry-compatible magtape.
/D Data transmission errors will be handled by the user. See
the section below on error handling. A data transmission error is
usually a physical problem of some sort. See /F if you want to be able
to handle problems with the format of the data.
/E End of line characters will be visible to the program. Normally
Pascal programs put a blank in the input buffer at the end of line.
If this option is specified, the actual end of line character will
appear in the buffer. Normally a single GET will read past both a
carriage return and a line feed, since they form a single line
terminator. If /E is set, the carriage return and the line feed will be
treated as separate characters. However, READLN will still skip them both.
/F Format errors in the data will be handled by the user. See
the section below on error handling. A format error occurs when the
data is readable, but is not what READ wants. E.g. such an error will
occur if you try to read a number, but the next character in the
file is a letter.
/I Interactive file. The meaning of this has been discussed above.
When you do a RESET, Pascal will normally read the first component in the
file. This initial read is done as part of the RESET operation, before
it returns control to your program. This option will prevent RESET from doing
such an initial read.
/M:nn Mode specification. Currently you can only use this specification
on Tops-20. It allows you to specify the internal software mode that
Pascal will use to process a file. This option will probably not be
much use to a normal user. It is discussed in detail in the
reference manual.
/O Open errors will be handled by the user. See
the section below on error handling. An open
error is an error that occurs during the RESET or REWRITE. The most
common kinds of open error are for the specified file to be missing
or for it to be protected such that you are not allowed to access it.
/U Upper case the file. All lower case letters will be turned
into the equivalent upper case. Only letters are affected.
@end(description)
Tops-20 Pascal has fairly powerful facilities for dealing with labelled
tapes. These facilities use Tops-20's special labelled tape support,
so they are not yet available for Tops-10. To read a labelled tape,
you normally do not need to do anything special. However when you
want to write a labelled tape, you often may want to specify exactly
how the file is to be written. To do this, you include "attributes"
as part of the file name. Here is a typical file name that
uses attributes to control the format of a file on tape:
@begin(display)
MT0:DATA;FORMAT:F;RECORD:80;BLOCK:8000
@end(display)
This entire string is considered to be the file name. You
can type such a string when you are asked about the files
in the program statement. Or you can supply such a string
as the second argument to a REWRITE statement. This particular
string asks for a file called DATA to be written in fixed format,
with records of length 80, blocked 100 per block. Pascal will
fill lines that are shorter than 80 characters with blanks.
The record format is described by ;FORMAT:x, where x is a single
letter. The following formats are supported by Pascal:
@begin(description)
U (undefined) This is the default for output files. If this is
what you want, you do not need to use any attributes at
all. "MT0:" alone would be sufficient. Pascal
assumes that a file in format U has the same structure as
a disk file. That is, end of lines are denoted by carriage
returns, etc. Pascal will ignore physical record boundaries on the
tape. If you do not do anything special, such files can be
copied back and forth between disk and tape using a simple
COPY command in the EXEC. You might want to specify a block
size in order to make more efficient use of the tape. E.g.
"MT0:;BLOCK:5120". Tapes written in format U will probably not
be readable on computers other than a DECsystem-10 or DECSYSTEM-20.
D (variable) This format is useful for text files that you want
to be able to move to other computers. This format uses special
record headers to show where lines begin and end.
Most other computers understand these headers, but do not
understand the normal DEC convention of using carriage returns to end
a line. Also, tapes are coded one character per tape frame, which is
what other systems expect. Unless you really know what you are
doing, you will only be able to use D format for text files
(files declared TEXT or FILE OF CHAR). To use this mode, you
should specify something like "MT0:;FORMAT:D;BLOCK:5000".
The block size should be chosen large enough to make reasonably efficient use
of tape, but not to waste memory.
F (fixed) This format is also usable to communicate with
other computers. In it there is nothing on the tape
to show where lines end. However all lines are same length. Thus
system can find the end of a line by counting characters. These
tapes are also coded one character per tape frame. The example
above showed how to specify format F. You should specify both a
block size and a record size. Pascal will fill out all lines
to match the record size, by putting blanks at the end of each line
that would be too short. The system will put as many records into
one physical tape block as it can fit there. The block size must be
an even multiple of the record size. Again, the block size should
be big enough not to waste tape. Unless you are an expert you
will only be able to use this mode for text files also.
S (spanned) This is a somewhat unusual mode. It is very
similar to mode D. However the record headers are written in
such a way that records can cross block boundaries. This mode
makes somewhat more efficient use of tape, but is more complex
to process. Many other computers do not support it.
@end(description)
When you are reading a labelled tape, Pascal can tell the
structure of the tape from the label. Thus you should not
have to specify any attributes for an input file.
@subsection(I/O Error processing )
Errors may occur at three different times. You may
decide separately how Pascal should handle each of these three error types.
@begin(itemize)
Data transmission errors: errors occuring during physical I/O operations
(GET and PUT). These would normally indicate some problem with the
device or medium.
Format errors: errors occuring during number conversion (READ and WRITE).
These would be errors such as having a letter appear where you requested
that a number be read.
Opening errors: errors during file opening (RESET and REWRITE).
These would be errors having something to do with the file system,
e.g. that the file you requested is not present.
@end(itemize)
When an error occurs, the system checks to see whether you specified
that you want to handle this error. You would have specified this by
giving the corresponding switch in the option list when you opened
the file. If you didn't ask to handle this kind of error,
the I/O system will take a default action. The default actions
are as follows:
@begin(itemize)
Data transmission errors: Print an error message and terminate the program.
Format errors: If the file involved is assigned to a
terminal, ask the user is given to retype his input, and
then continue with the program. If the file is not on a terminal, print
an error message and terminate the program.
Opening errors: Ask the user for a new file name.
@end(itemize)
If you did specify that you want to handle the appropriate kind of error,
the I/O system will not attempt to do any error recovery of its own.
The I/O procedure that your program was executing
will be aborted, and your program will continue. As an indication
that something odd has happened, EOF (and EOLN) will be set. Normally,
future I/O operations will do nothing until you recover the error.
The runtimes are constructed so that the high-level read routines (READ
and READLN) return immediately with no effect when EOF is set. Other
routines proceed as usual, but usually the system sees to it that
they have no effect. The moral is, if you set one of the magic bits,
you had better check EOF (or ERSTAT, to be explained below) now and then,
or your program may be trying to process non-existent data.
One would hope that you will ask to handle errors yourself only
if you intend to do something about them. To do so you need two tools: a
function to tell you what kind of error has happened, and a procedure to
clear out error conditions. These are ERSTAT and CLREOF, respectively.
To use these, you must declare them near the beginning of your program.
Put the following declarations anywhere that procedure declarations
would be legal, at the top (global) level of your program:
@begin(display)
function erstat(var f:file):integer; extern;
procedure clreof(var f:file); extern;
@end(display)
They both take one argument, the name of a file. ERSTAT returns an
internal code for the most recent error, or 0 if no error has happened.
Trying to read past the end of file is considered an error.
(Its code is 600220B on Tops-20, and 20000B on Tops-10.)
CLREOF clears an error condition. It restores
EOF and EOLN to their normal states, and clears the error condition
in the operating system. If you wish to continue with (or retry)
I/O, you should call CLREOF before continuing.
Note that the error "Quota exceeded or disk full" cannot currently
be processed by your program. The Pascal I/O system (Tops-20), or the monitor
(Tops-10) will print an error message and advise the user to type
CONTINUE after having freed up some disk space.
@section(CLOSE)
@label(close)
Pascal automatically closes all files when a program ends. However there
are cases where you may want to close a file in the middle of a program.
You may want to do this to make the file available to other programs, or
simply to prevent the program from changing it accidentally later on.
Thus the procedure CLOSE is available. The normal call is
@begin(display)
CLOSE(file)
@end(display)
This closes the file, but does not release Pascal's internal pointer
to it (the "jfn" on Tops-20, a data block containing the name
of the file on Tops-10). Thus any future RESET or REWRITE of this
file will use the same file name, unless it includes an explict file name.
@section(RENAME)
@label(rename)
You may use RENAME(file,newname) to rename an existing file.
The newname argument is treated the same way as the name
argument for RESET and REWRITE. It specifies the new name for the
file. If the operation works, EOF is set to false, otherwise
to true. (On Tops-10, there may be some problem here at the
moment.) The system must know which existing file you are referring to.
On Tops-10, the file must be open. This means that you must have
done a RESET or REWRITE, and not closed it since. On Tops-20
you only need to have a jfn for the file. Specifying the file
in the PROGRAM statement will cause Pascal to get a jfn for
it. Opening the file with RESET or REWRITE will also get a jfn.
CLOSE will not lose the jfn unless you specifically ask for the
jfn to be returned. (We have not told you how to do that.) Once the
RENAME is finished, the file will be closed.
@section(DELETE )
@label(delete)
DELETE(file) will delete the mentioned file. As with
RENAME, on Tops-10 the file must be open. On Tops-20
Pascal must have a jfn for the file. (This
will be the case if it was mentioned in the PROGRAM
statement or if RESET, REWRITE, etc., were done on it.)
@section(UPDATE)
@label(update)
In standard Pascal, the only way you can change a file is
by reading it and writing a new copy. In this implementation,
you can change files without recopying them, as long as
they are stored on a random-access device (probably disk). If you intend
to change a file in this way, you must open it by using the procedure
UPDATE instead of RESET or REWRITE. When you have opened a file with
UPDATE, you may use both GET and PUT (or READ and WRITE) with it. There
is a single "current position" within the file, which is advanced by
both GET and PUT.
UPDATE has the same arguments as RESET. At a few places
in this manual, we say that a file must have been opened by
RESET or REWRITE. If a file was opened by UPDATE, that
is OK too.
Note that EOF is normally false for a file opened by UPDATE. Pascal
will turn on EOF if you try to read beyond the end of file or if an error
occurs. Of course you will never see EOF after an error unless you
requested user error handling in your UPDATE. (See @ref(open).)
Note that it is perfectly legitimate to write beyond the end
of file. Pascal simply moves the end of file to be after the
new data.
@section(Random access)
@label(randac)
It is possible to move around a file randomly when it is on a
direct-access device (i.e. disk or some equivalent). In order
to use this facility, you must know what a "byte" is. Unless
you are doing something wierd, a byte is one character for
normal text files, and a word for other (binary) files.
The procedures that implement random access use a byte serial number to
keep track of their position. I will henceforth call this the
"position". This number refers to the number of bytes between the
beginning of the file and the position in question. Thus the beginning
of the file is position 0.
CURPOS(FILE) returns the current position of the file. This is the
position at which the next thing to be read or written would begin. When
a file has just been opened, the position is, of course, 0. Note that
CURPOS may give an error if used with a file not on disk.
SETPOS(FILE,POSITION) sets things up so the next GET(FILE) or PUT(FILE)
will read or write from the position specified.
If the file was opened for input (i.e. with RESET or UPDATE), SETPOS
does an implied GET. That is, it reads the first character or record at
the new position. To prevent this implied GET, use an extra non-zero
argument, e.g. SETPOS(F,6,TRUE). On Tops-10, SETPOS is only legal
with files opened for input (i.e. with RESET or UPDATE). On Tops-20,
it is sometimes possible to do SETPOS on files opened for output only
(i.e. with REWRITE or APPEND).
If you SETPOS to a position beyond the end of file, the next
read will set EOF. If you really wanted to read, you should
SETPOS to a more reasonable position. This will reset EOF.
It is perfectly legal to write
beyond the end of file, however. Doing so extends the length
of the file. If you SETPOS to a position beyond the end of
the file on Tops-20, it is possible to leave non-existent pages between
the old end of file and the newly written part. These should
cause no trouble to PASCAL (such pages are treated as full of
binary zeroes), but may for programs written in other languages.
@section(I/O to strings)
@label(strio)
It is often convenient to be able to use the number-scanning abilities
of READ to process a string of characters in an array of CHAR.
Similarly, it may be useful to use the formatting capabilities of
WRITE to make up a string of characters. To allow these operations,
this implementation provides a facility to treat a packed array of
CHAR as if it were a file, allowing READ from it and WRITE to it.
This facility is equivalent to the REREAD and REWRITE functions
present in many implementations of FORTRAN.
To make use of this, you must use a file that has been declared
FILE OF CHAR. Rather than using RESET or REWRITE to initialize I/O, you
use STRSET or STRWRITE instead. These associate a string with the
file and set the internal file pointer to the beginning of the string
(in the simplest case). A typical call would be STRSET(FILE1,MYARRAY).
After that call is issued FILE1 can be used with READ, etc., and will take
successive characters out of the array MYARRAY.
Similarly, one might do STRWRITE(FILE2,YOURARRAY), and then use
WRITE(FILE2,...) to write things into YOURARRAY. Note that as with a
RESET, an implicit GET is done as part of the STRSET. Thus immediately
after the STRSET, the first character of the string is in the file
buffer.
It is possible to start I/O at a location other than the beginning of the
array. To do so, use a third argument, which is the index of the first
element to be transferred. E.g. STRSET(FILE1,MYARRAY,5) means that the
GET will retrieve element 5 from MYARRAY. (This is MYARRAY[5]. It
is not necessarily the fifth element, since the index might be -20..6
or something.)
There is a procedure to see where you currently are
in the string. It is GETINDEX(file,variable). Variable is set to the
current index into the array. This is the index of the thing that will
be read by the next GET (or written by the next PUT).
Note that no
runtime error messages will ever result from string I/O. Should you run
over the end of the string, PASCAL will simply set EOF (or clear it if you
are doing output). It will also set EOF if you read an illegal format
number. (GETINDEX will allow you to discriminate these two cases, if you
care.)
There is also a fourth optional argument to STRSET and STRWRITE.
This sets a limit on how much of the array will be used. It thus
gives you the effect of the substring operator in PL/I.
For example, STRWRITE(F1,AR1,3,6) will make it possible to change
characters 3 to 6 inclusive. If absent, the fourth argument
defaults to the last location in the array.
Beware that it is possible to set a file to an array, and then
exit the block in which the array is defined. The file is
then pointing out into nowhere. This is not currently detected.
@chapter<PASCAL Debug System (PASDDT)>
A PASCAL program may be run with the PASCAL Debug System by
using the monitor command DEBUG instead of EXECUTE. (Successful
debugging also requires that the program be assembled with
/DEBUG, but this is on by default.) For example, the following
command will cause the program GAUSS to be run under the control
of PASDDT:
@begin(display)
DEBUG GAUSS.PAS
@end(display)
PASDDT is an extra command
interpreter that allows you to control how your program is
executed. It lets you stop your program at places that you
have specified in advance, or trace its execution line by
line. When PASDDT is control, you can look at the current value of
the variables in your program (using normal PASCAL notation), and
you can even assign new values to them.
@section(How PASDDT works)
PASDDT commands can only be given when PASDDT is in control. When
you start out debugging a program, PASDDT is initially in control.
PASDDT continues accepting commands from you until you tell it to
start your program. Once you have done that, your program is in
control until something happens to return control to PASDDT.
Here are the ways that PASDDT can regain control:
@begin(itemize)
You can set a "breakpoint". This is a specific line in your program
where you would like to have the opportunity to look at variables
or do other PASDDT commands. When the program reaches such a line
during its execution, it is suspended, and control returns to PASDDT.
You insert breakpoints by using the STOP command, described below.
You can request "single stepping". In this case, one line of the
program is executed at a time, with PASDDT regaining control after
each line is executed. You enter single step mode by using the STEP
command.
When an error occurs, control goes to PASDDT, to allow you to examine
the program context when the error happened.
If you need to get into the debugger while your program is running,
the procedure differs somewhat depending upon whether you are
running under Tops-10 or Tops-20. On Tops-20, you simply type
^D (control-D). When you type ^D, you program will immediately be
suspended and
PASDDT will get control. This will work no matter what the program
happens to be doing at the time. On Tops-10, such interrupt
characters are not available. So there you would ^C your program,
and type the command DDT to the monitor. This will cause you
to enter PASDDT.
@end(itemize)
Once PASDDT has regained control, you can look at and change variables,
and do other PASDDT commands. Then you can request PASDDT to continue
your program. When you do, your program will continue from exactly
where it was when it was stopped.
Many PASDDT commands use line numbers to refer to a line in your
program. If your file contains SOS line numbers, these line numbers
are used. Otherwise, 1 refers to the first line, 2 to the second, etc.
Many files are organized into pages. In SOS and TVEDIT there are special
commands to produce page marks. In other editors, pages are delimited
by form feed characters (^L, control-L). In PASDDT you can specify
line 75 on page 3 by the syntax "75/3". If you do not specify a page
number, it is assumed that you are referring to the current page (the
page on which the most recent typeout of program text began). Line numbers
start over again with 1 on each page (except in SOS file, where the SOS
line numbers are used).
Here are some examples of legal line number specifications.
@begin(description)
1864 line 1864 on the current page
1200/5 line 1200 on page 5
* the current line (where the most recent typeout of program
text started)
@end(description)
You can find out what the current line and page are by typing the command
"*="
@section(Commands for controlling your program)
The section will describe commands that start and stop your program,
thus determining when PASDDT will get control.
After you issue the DEBUG command, your program will go through the
normal startup dialog. It will ask for file names for all files
listed in the PROGRAM statement, just as it usually would. If INPUT
is assigned to the terminal (and is not declared interactive), it will
ask for the first line of input from the terminal. Once this is
finished, PASDDT will get control. You will see something like the
following:
@begin(display)
@@debug merge.pas
LINK: Loading
[LNKXCT MERGE Execution]
OUTPUT : tty:
> Stop at main BEGIN - module MERGE open at 270/1
270 for i := 1 to 36 do
271 for j := 1 to 104 do
272 for k := 1 to 11 do
>>
@end(display)
The >> prompt shows that PASDDT is waiting for a command. PASDDT
always shows you the line of your program that will be executed next
if you continue the program. In this case it is line 270 on page 1
of your program. A message like this will be printed whenever
PASDDT gets control from your program.
The following commands can be used to control when Pascal will next
get control:
@center(STOP line-number)
This puts a breakpoint at the specified line. If you continue your
program's execution, and it ever reaches this line, the program
will be suspended and PASDDT put in control. You will then see
a message similar to the one shown above. The >> prompt will tell
you that PASDDT is again waiting for commands.
@center(STOP LIST)
Lists the line numbers of all the breakpoints.
@center(STOP NOT line-number)
Removes the breakpoint at the specified line.
@center(STOP NOT ALL)
Removes all breakpoints.
@center(END)
This ends the control by PASDDT. It causes your program to proceed
from the point where it was most recently stopped. The program will
continue until something happens to give control back to PASDDT.
Most commonly it will continue until it reaches a line where a breakpoint
has been set. If you have been single-stepping, END cancels single-step
mode.
@section(Single step mode)
Single step mode is a convenient way of executing your program while
maintaining a maximum of control under PASDDT. In contrast to breakpoints,
which are used when you know what part of the program you are interested
in looking at, single step mode is used when you don't know exactly
what you are looking for. It causes only one line of your program
to be executed. PASDDT regains control at every line.
Here is what you will see at each line when you are in single step mode:
@begin(display)
> Stop in MERGE:270/1
270 for i := 1 to 36 do
271 for j := 1 to 104 do
272 for k := 1 to 11 do
S>
@end(display)
This indicates that the next line to be executed is line 270 on page 1.
The prompt of S> instead of >> indicates that you are in single step mode.
Here are the commands that are used to start and stop single-step mode,
and to control your program when you are in it:
@center(STEP)
Start single-stepping. This will cause your program to regain control,
but will return control to PASDDT at the next line. This command is
valid whether you are in single-step mode or not. It leaves you in
single-step mode.
@center(carriage return)
When you are in single-step mode, a simple carriage return is equivalent
to the command STEP. This is simply a convenience to allow you to
move through your program without having to type the word S-T-E-P for
each line to be done. In fact the only difference between single step
mode and normal PASDDT is the fact that in single-step mode, carriage
return and escape are available as convenient abbreviations. All normal
PASDDT commands are still available in single-step mode.
@center(escape)
When you are in single-step mode, you sometimes find yourself steppping
through procedures in which you are not interested. If you hit the
escape key, execution of your program will continue until the program
exits from the procedure it is currently executing. When the program
reaches the next line after the call to that procedure, PASDDT will
regain control. You will probably have to try single-stepping before
you see why this is a useful feature.
@center(END)
You get out of single-step mode by continuing your program in the
normal way, i.e. by the END command.
@section(Commands for looking at and changing variables)
The main reason for using PASDDT is that it lets you look at what
is going on inside your program. The commands listed in this
section are those that allow you to look at variables, and even
change their values.
@center(variable =)
This command shows you the value of a variable from your program.
There is some problem because of Pascal's block structure. There
can be 25 different variables in your program all called "I".
Each one is defined in a different procedure. PASDDT uses the
same rule for figuring out which one you mean that Pascal itself
uses. The search starts at the location that was shown when
PASDDT gained control (the next line to be executed). Any variable
defined in the procedure of which that line is a part is used first.
Then procedures containing that one are searched, until the search
ends with global variables. Procedures that do not contain the
next line to be executed are not accessible.
Note that variable is any legal Pascal variable. You can use
subscripts, dots, and pointer arrows, and even complex combinations of
these. If you ask for an array or structure, all of its elements will
be printed. (For an array, several identical elements are printed in a
abbreviated form.)
@center(variable := value)
This allows you to change the value of a variable. Whatever value you
set it to will be used by the program if you continue it. Value should
be a Pascal constant of a type compatible with the variable involved.
@center(TRACE)
Trace gives you a "backtrace", a list of what procedures are currently
active, and where they were called from. If you do not want to see the
whole backtrace, you can use the following form:
@center(TRACE n)
which prints only the first N procedure calls from the full trace.
@center(STACKDUMP)
Stackdump prints the value of all local variables. Needless to say,
this output can get a bit voluminous. Thus it is possible to direct
the output of this command to a file:
@center(STACKDUMP 'filename')
It is also possible to specify that you only want to see local variables
from the N innermost procedures currently active. (You can see what
these are from the output of TRACE.)
@center(STACKDUMP n)
@section(Looking around in the source file)
Sometimes you will want to place a breakpoint somewhere, but not remember
the exact line number. Or for some other reason you may need to look
around in the source file. For this purpose, PASDDT has two commands
useful for looking around.
@section(FIND 'string')
This command searches forward in the source file, beginning from
the current location (denoted by a dot). It looks for the first
occurence of the string specified. In doing the search, upper and
lower case letters are considered equivalent. So if you say
FIND 'MYPROC', this will match an appearance of MyProc in the source
file. The first line found will be displayed, and will become the
new current line.
@center(TYPE start-line end-line)
This allows you to type out any part of the source file on your
terminal. If you specify only one line number, just that one
line will be typed. The ending line number can be something
ridiculously big if you want to see everything to the end of
the file.
@section(A warning about confusing PASDDT)
It is possible for PASDDT to become confused about where it
is in your program. This will generally happen if you transfer
to PASDDT by typing ^D (control-D) in the middle of your
program. (Or on Tops-10, typing ^C and then the monitor
command DDT.) As long as the part of your program that is written
is Pascal is being executed, things will be fine. But if you
happen to be in one of the library routines (e.g. I/O routines,
NEW, or routines written in another language and loaded with
your Pascal program), PASDDT will be unable to figure out
where you are. In this case, it will usually claim that you
are at either line 0/0, or at the last line in your program.
The only serious problem raised by this case is that you can't
tell exactly where you are in the program. The usual functions
of PASDDT should still work. Note that the TRACE command will
at least tell you what procedure you are in. And END and STEP
can still be used to continue your program. (In fact STEP is
a convenient way to find out where you are, as it will cause
a stop at the next line in the source program.)
The problem happens most often when you stop the program while
it is waiting for input from the terminal.
@Chapter(Standard Procedures and Functions)
The following standard procedures and functions (described in the
Revised PASCAL Report(ref)) are implemented.
@begin(display)
Standard Functions Standard Procedures
ABS GET
SQR PUT
ODD RESET (See @ref(open))
SUCC REWRITE (See @ref(open))
PRED NEW
ORD READ
CHR READLN (See @ref(charproc))
TRUNC WRITE (See @ref(write))
ROUND WRITELN (See @ref(write))
EOLN PAGE
EOF PACK
SIN UNPACK
COS
EXP
LN
SQRT
ARCTAN
@end(display)
Additional mathematical functions are available:
@begin(display)
ARCSIN SIND
ARCCOS COSD
SINH LOG
COSH
TANH
@end(display)
The following functions may be used to simulate the missing
** operator. They must be declared EXTERN.
@begin(description)
FUNCTION POWER(X,Y:REAL):REAL; EXTERN; - X ** Y
FUNCTION IPOWER(I,J:INTEGER):INTEGER;EXTERN - I ** J
FUNCTION MPOWER(X:REAL;I:INTEGER):REAL;EXTERN - X ** I
@end(description)
Additional standard functions. Those prefixed by a star are not
described in this document. See the full manual.
@begin(description)
CURPOS(file) returns the current position in a file. See section @ref(randac).
Only valid for files on random access device. (type integer)
DATE result is a PACKED ARRAY [1..9] OF CHAR.
The date is returned in the form 'DD-Mmm-YY'.
*NEXTFILE(file). Advances to the next spec for a wildcard file.
RANDOM(dummy) result is a real number in the interval 0.0 .. 1.0. Ignores
its argument, but an argument is required.
*RECSIZE(file) returns the record size of the file.
RUNTIME elapsed CPU time in msec (type integer)
TIME current time in msec (type integer)
@end(description)
Additional standard procedures:
@begin(description)
*APPEND(file,name,...). Like REWRITE, but extends an existing file.
*BREAK(file). Forces out the output buffer of a file.
*BREAKIN(file,noget). Clears the input buffer count.
*CALLI(calli number ...). Arbitrary monitor call. Tops-10 only.
CLOSE(file,bits). Close file and release its channel. See section @ref(close).
DELETE(file). Delete file. See @ref(delete).
*DISMISS(file). Abort creation of a file.
GETINDEX(file,index). If file is open on a string (STRSET or STRWRITE),
sets index to current index into the string. (See section @ref(strio).)
*GETLINENR(file,lineno). Lineno must be a packed array of char. It
is set to the last line number seen in the file. If no line numbers
have been seen '-----' is returned. ' ' is returned for a page
mark. If file is omitted, INPUT is assumed.
*JSYS(jsysnumber, ...). Arbitrary monitor call. Tops-20 only.
*MARK(index). Save state of the heap.
*PUTX(file). Rewrite record in update mode.
*RCLOSE(file). Close, releasing jfn.
*RELEASE(index). Restore saved state of the heap.
RENAME(file,name,...). Rename an open file. See @ref(rename).
SETPOS(file,position). Move in random access file. See @ref(randac).
STRSET(file,array,...). Open input file on array. See @ref(strio).
STRWRITE(file,array,...). Open output file on array. See @ref(strio).
UPDATE(file,name,...). Open random access file for revising in place.
See section @ref(update).
@end(description)
Although it is not exactly a procedure or function, some explanation
should be given of the MOD operator. X MOD Y is the remainder after
dividing X by Y, using integer division. The sign of the result is
the same as the sign of X (unless the result is zero, of course).
Note that this is a different definition than the one used by mathematicians.
For them X MOD Y is always between 0 and Y-1. Here it may be between
-(Y-1) and +(Y-1), depending upon the sign of X. This implementation is
used for consistency with the Cyber implementation, which is the semi-official
standard. Note that SAIL (and some other widely used languages) also
use this perverted definition of MOD.
@Chapter(Implementation Restrictions)
a) A maximum of 20 labels is permitted in any one procedure.
(This is an assembly parameter. The whole restriction may
be removed easily, at the cost of some extra local fixups in
the .REL file.) This includes both labels declared in the
LABEL section and those not so declared. (Labels need be
declared only if they will be the object of a non-local goto.)
b) Printer control characters are not available. A new page is
started by a call to the standard procedure PAGE.
c) Procedures and functions may be passed as parameters to
procedures and functions, as described in the Revised Report(ref)
We have not modified the syntax to allow declaration of the
arguments to such parametric procedures/functions. (Prof.
Nagel's version contains such a modification.) Also, note
that when a parametric procedure/function is called, all of
the arguments passed to it must fit in the accumulators.
Normally this allows 5 arguments, although certain arrays
count as 2 arguments, and functions allow one extra argument.
An appropriate error message is given if this constraint is
violated.
d) A maximum of 40000 words of code may be generated for
any procedure or function. Since /DEBUG and /CHECK produce
more code, it is normal to run into this limit when /DEBUG
is turned on in programs that compile correctly for /NODEBUG.
The error message "Too many cases in CASE statement" is
usually caused by a procedure or function that is too long,
rather than by too many cases. (There is no separate limit
to the number of cases in a CASE statement.) The maximum
number of words is an assembly parameter, so it may be
expanded easily, if the compiler is recompiled.
e) Only comparisons described in the PASCAL manual can be done.
There were serious problems with the earlier attempt to allow
comparison of arbitrary records and arrays.
f) Sets may only be defined on types or subranges of types having
72 or fewer members. With subranges of integers the set may only
include 0 to 71. With enumerated types it may include only
the first 72 members of the enumeration. Special provisions are
made to allow sets of CHAR. The problem is that there are 128
possible ASCII characters. This
problem is "solved" by treating certain characters as equivalent.
In particular, lower case letters are treated as equivalent to
the corresponding upper case letter. And all control characters
except for the tab are treated as equivalent. Thus
['a'] is exactly the same set as ['A']. (One of those is
lower case and the other upper case.) Similarly 'a' in ['A']
will succeed. And ['^X'] is the same set as ['^B'].
g) WRITE(TTY,X,Y) actually writes to the file TTYOUTPUT. This
mapping of TTY into TTYOUTPUT occurs at compile time. So if you
pass the file TTY to a procedure as parameter F,
WRITE(F,X,Y) is not transformed into WRITE(TTY,X,Y). It is not
clear whether this is a bug or not.
h) This compiler attempts to check that assignments to subrange
variables are within the subrange. It is possible to fool this
test by using VAR parameters. These problems cannot be overcome
unless there is some way for the compiler to tell which VAR
parameters are intended as inputs to the procedure and which as
outputs.
i) The contents of unused bits in packed arrays and records is
undefined. This should not cause trouble, except in programs
the play fast and loose with variant records, or programs that
pass arrays of type PACKED ARRAY OF CHAR to Fortran programs.
Many Fortran programmers will use integer comparisons on character
data, thus requiring the low order bit in the word to be zero.
The code compiled in Pascal to compare PACKED ARRAY OF CHAR
variables ignores the low order bit, so this does not cause a
problem in Pascal. If you require unused fields to be zero in all
cases, you can set /ZERO or (*$Z+*).
j) Only the first 10 characters of identifiers are examined,
so all identifiers must be unique to their first 10 characters.
Note that the Revised Report(ref) only requires the implementation to
look at the first 8.
k) All of the entry points in the runtime library are effectively
reserved external names. That is, if you use one of these names
either as your program name (in the PROGRAM statement) or as the
name of a procedure in a file of external procedures, disaster
may result. Any name whose first six characters is the same as
one of these names will cause the problem. You can sometimes
get away with violating this rule if your program does not use
any of the features of Pascal which cause the particular runtime
routine involved to be invoked. As of the time when this document
was prepared, the following were the entry point names. For an
up to date list, use the command "TTY:=PASLIB/POINTS" to MAKLIB:
DEBUG,
READC, READI, READPS, READR, READUS, WRITEC, WRTBOL, WRTHEX, WRTINT, WRTOCT, WRTPST, WRTREA, WRTUST,
ANALYS, APPEND, BREAK, BREAKI, CLOFIL, CLREOF, CORERR, CURPOS, DELF., END, ENTERC, ERSTAT, GETCH, GETCHR, GETFN.,
GETLN, GETLNX, GETX., ILLFN, INXERR, LEAVEC, LSTNEW, LSTREC, NEW, NEWBND, NEWCL., NEWPAG, NEXTFI, NORCHT, PASIN.,
PTRER., PUT, PUTCH, PUTLN, PUTLNX, PUTPG, PUTPGX, PUTX, QUIT, RELF., RENAME, RESDEV, RESETF, RETPAG, REWRIT,
SETPOS, SRERR, UPDATE,
SAFBEG, SAFEND,
STSET., STWR.,
PSIDEF, PSIDIS, PSIENA,
CURJFN, FROM6, SETJFN, TO6,
DATE, .STCHM
l) The compiler does not enforce the restriction that a FOR loop body may
not change the controlled variable.
The following statement is illegal, but will
compile under this compiler: FOR I := 1 TO N DO I := I+1
It will do every other value of I.