philg hates software: Delphi's Type-Bondage

• From: Phil!Gregory
  Date: 17:37 on 12 Aug 2005
  Subject: Delphi's Type-Bondage
  
  Hey, here's an idea.  Let's make a language that forces the program to
  adhere to extremely rigid variable typing rules.  That way, we can force
  the programmer to never shoot himself in the foot.  Oh, but the whole
  bondage and discipline approach to typing won't make him hate us enough.
  Let's also introduce just enough type interchangeability to break anything
  where he might try to use the type strictness to his benefit.
  
  Well, it works.  I hate them.
  
  I have to read a series of database fields into a series of variables.
  Except for the types of the variables, the process is the same for all of
  the fields.  I'd love to have just one function to call on all of them; it
  would make things very simple.  Delphi thinks differently.  There's no way
  to to hand a function a variable of an arbitrary type and have it do the
  right thing; the compiler won't allow it.  The best I can do is to keep
  track of the data types myself and pass an extra value into the function
  to tell it what the type of the destination variable is.
  
  "But wait!" you cry (maybe).  "You can use overloaded functions and
  inheritance and stuff!"  Or, at least, that's what I though to myself.
  But, while Delphi is ever-so-strict about keeping different types
  separate[0], if one type is defined in terms of another (TDateTime is
  really a Double, for instance), overloaded functions _cannot tell the
  difference between them_.
  
  Go, Delphi, giving me the worst of all possible worlds.
  
  
  [0] To the point where this is illegal code:
  
      var
        arr1 : array[1..10] of Integer;
        arr2 : array[1..10] of Integer;
      begin
        arr1 := arr2
  
      because the compiler considers arr1 and arr2 to be of different
      types.
  
  
  

• From: Robert G. Werner
  Date: 22:31 on 12 Aug 2005
  Subject: Re: Delphi's Type-Bondage
  
  Phil!Gregory wrote:
  [snip]
  > Go, Delphi, giving me the worst of all possible worlds.
  > 
  > 
  > [0] To the point where this is illegal code:
  > 
  >     var
  >       arr1 : array[1..10] of Integer;
  >       arr2 : array[1..10] of Integer;
  >     begin
  >       arr1 := arr2
  > 
  >     because the compiler considers arr1 and arr2 to be of different
  >     types.
  > 
  Wave's of Pitty are washing from my keyboard to yours.
  
  
  

• From: Peter Pentchev
  Date: 20:10 on 18 Aug 2005
  Subject: Re: Delphi's Type-Bondage
  
  
  --nVMJ2NtxeReIH9PS
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  On Fri, Aug 12, 2005 at 02:31:27PM -0700, Robert G. Werner wrote:
  > Phil!Gregory wrote:
  > [snip]
  > > Go, Delphi, giving me the worst of all possible worlds.
  > >=20
  > >=20
  > > [0] To the point where this is illegal code:
  > >=20
  > >     var
  > >       arr1 : array[1..10] of Integer;
  > >       arr2 : array[1..10] of Integer;
  > >     begin
  > >       arr1 :=3D arr2
  > >=20
  > >     because the compiler considers arr1 and arr2 to be of different
  > >     types.
  > >=20
  > Wave's of Pitty are washing from my keyboard to yours.
  
  Well, at least it's a good thing those aren't waves ot pithy ;)
  
  G'luck,
  Peter
  
  --=20
  Peter Pentchev	roam@xxxxxxx.xxx    roam@xxxxx.xx    roam@xxxxxxx.xxx
  PGP key:	http://people.FreeBSD.org/~roam/roam.key.asc
  Key fingerprint	FDBA FD79 C26F 3C51 C95E  DF9E ED18 B68D 1619 4553
  "yields falsehood, when appended to its quotation." yields falsehood, when =
  appended to its quotation.
  
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  --nVMJ2NtxeReIH9PS--
  
  

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