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From: Robert A Duff <bobduff@shell01.TheWorld.com>
Subject: Re: Pascal Calling Convention
Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2011 14:30:59 -0400
Date: 2011-03-29T14:30:59-04:00	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <wcc7hbhu6cc.fsf@shell01.TheWorld.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: 4d9148d2$1$14782$882e7ee2@usenet-news.net

Hyman Rosen <hyrosen@mail.com> writes:

> And it's a good program to keep at hand to serve as a counterexample
> when programming languages want access to uninitialized data to be
> undefined behavior. It's more sensible to regard such data as having
> arbitrary but fixed values, subject to a validity check.

Just because you know of one algorithm that could use that semantics?!
(OK, I know of one other case.  Sort of.)

If I wanted to add this "feature" to Ada, I'd do so via an attribute:
T'Arbitrary_Value returns an arbitrary value of type T.  Then:

    My_Array := (1..1_000_000 => Integer'Arbitrary_Value);

can be implemented in zero machine instructions.  You really don't want
to use arbitrary values by accident.

At least with "undefined behavior", or "erroneous execution" the
compiler can have a mode that detects uninit vars at run time, which can
be useful for debugging.  GNAT has a mode that detects most uninit vars
at run time (although using uninit is no longer erroneous in Ada).

- Bob



  reply	other threads:[~2011-03-29 18:30 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 57+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2011-03-23 21:37 Pascal Calling Convention Shark8
2011-03-23 23:25 ` Yannick Duchêne (Hibou57)
2011-03-24  0:24   ` Randy Brukardt
2011-03-24  0:43     ` Yannick Duchêne (Hibou57)
2011-03-24  2:04       ` Shark8
2011-03-25 15:40         ` Yannick Duchêne (Hibou57)
     [not found]       ` <F8mdnYCca6tRJBfQnZ2dnUVZ_s-dnZ2d@earthlink.com>
2011-03-24 19:20         ` Keith Thompson
2011-03-25 16:04           ` Robert A Duff
2011-03-25 17:02             ` Hyman Rosen
2011-03-25 17:09               ` Robert A Duff
2011-03-25 17:35                 ` Hyman Rosen
2011-03-26 19:51                   ` Robert A Duff
2011-03-25 17:51             ` Keith Thompson
2011-03-26 20:46               ` Robert A Duff
2011-03-27  2:24                 ` Randy Brukardt
2011-03-28 15:41                   ` Adam Beneschan
2011-03-28 19:52                   ` Robert A Duff
2011-03-29  2:32                     ` Randy Brukardt
2011-03-29  6:06                       ` Shark8
2011-03-29 23:45                         ` Randy Brukardt
2011-03-29 19:19                       ` Robert A Duff
2011-03-30  0:02                         ` Randy Brukardt
2011-03-30 12:40                           ` Robert A Duff
2011-03-30 19:40                             ` Randy Brukardt
2011-03-30 20:56                               ` tmoran
2011-03-30 22:34                                 ` Robert A Duff
2011-03-31 21:00                                   ` Randy Brukardt
2011-03-28 20:29                 ` Hyman Rosen
2011-03-28 21:16                   ` Adam Beneschan
2011-03-28 21:26                     ` Hyman Rosen
2011-03-28 22:08                       ` Adam Beneschan
2011-03-28 23:47                         ` Georg Bauhaus
2011-03-29 12:23                           ` stefan-lucks
2011-03-29 13:10                             ` Hyman Rosen
2011-03-30 13:42                             ` Phil Clayton
2011-03-31  7:40                               ` Phil Clayton
2011-03-29  2:48                         ` Hyman Rosen
2011-03-29 18:30                           ` Robert A Duff [this message]
2011-03-29 23:25                             ` Adam Beneschan
2011-03-30 12:50                               ` Robert A Duff
2011-03-30 14:47                                 ` Adam Beneschan
2011-03-30 18:10                                   ` Robert A Duff
2011-03-29  3:01                         ` Hyman Rosen
2011-03-29 18:22                           ` Robert A Duff
2011-03-26 21:30           ` Florian Weimer
2011-03-27 16:18             ` Robert A Duff
2011-03-27 16:38               ` Florian Weimer
2011-03-27 16:56                 ` Robert A Duff
2011-03-24  2:15   ` Shark8
2011-03-24  0:38 ` ytomino
2011-03-24  2:23   ` Shark8
2011-03-24 21:29 ` Gautier write-only
2011-03-25 12:47 ` Marco
2011-03-25 15:38   ` Yannick Duchêne (Hibou57)
2011-03-26  8:39     ` ObjectAda [was: Pascal Calling Convention] Gautier write-only
2011-03-26 14:05       ` Marco
2011-03-26 21:58         ` Gautier write-only
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