Re: Language lawyer needed

[rich@wilbur.coyote.trw.com (Rich Messenger)]

davidg@oracorp.com (David Guaspari) writes:

>Here's a question for language lawyers.

>Consider the following pathological program:

>   procedure Q(x : integer) is  
>   begin
>     declare
>       x : integer;   -- (1)
>     begin
>       Q(x => 0);     -- (2)
>     end;
>   end Q;

>My question concerns the legality of Q (forgetting about the fact that
>its execution won't terminate).  One way to apply chapter 8 in the
>reference manual goes as follows: [omitted]

I'm no language lawyer, but I looked this up in the LRM index and found
the following rule which explains why this works:

    8.3.6: Visibility is either by selection or direct. A
    declaration is visible by selection at places that are defined
    as follows:
    ...
    (e) For a parameter specification of a given subprogram
    specification or entry declaration: at the place of the formal
    parameter (before the compound delimiter =>) in a named
    parameter association of a corresponding subprogram or entry
    call.

In other words, in the named parameter association "x" is considered to
be selected in the same sense that dot notation can be used to select a
declaration from the visible part of a package declaration.
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