Hello,
In free pascal/pascal/delphi it's necessary to declare a pointer to a
record, which is to be used inside the record to point to itself, before the
record itself without a type directive in between them for example:
// correct:
type
PMyRecord = ^TMyRecord;
TMyRecord = record
mSelf : PMyRecord;
mNext : PMyRecord;
end;
// incorrect/not allowed:
type
PMyRecord = ^TMyRecord; // above type anywhere else.
type
TMyRecord = record
mSelf : PMyRecord;
mNext : PMyRecord;
mPrev : ^TMyRecord; // not allowed.
end;
PMyRecord = ^TMyRecord; // below anywhere else
// and so forth...
I would first like to remark about this: "This is very newb unfriendly...
newbs might not know this... and will get frustrated by this
weird/odd/non-intuitive language construction".
Now some question about this:
1. Is there a compiler-related technical reason why it has to be like this ?
If so explain shortly...
2. Is there perhaps a technical solution for it so this is no longer
required ? If so how much effort would a solution cost ?
3. (Does free pascal still follow these restrictions ? I guess so... )
Final question assuming it's solvable::
4. Do you think it's worth to solve this oddity and make the language more
newb friendly and more intuitive ?
5. Would it break anything ? (I think not... it would be an
extension/relaxation of the language...)
Bye,
Skybuck.
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