Re: call: how many parameters?

[Hans-Bernhard B. <br...@ph...>]

On Sat, 24 Apr 2004, Petr Mikulik wrote:

> Currently, inside bla.gp called like
> 
> 	call "bla.gp" one two 3 4
> 
> it is not possible to determine how many parameters were passed into it.
> The only way seems to be a global variable like
> 
> 	params=4; call "bla.gp" one two 3 4
> 
> and to use
> 
> 	if (defined(params) && params==4) ...

Why that complicated?  What's wrong with making the number of parameters
the first parameter, i.e.

	call "bla.gp" 4 one two 3 4

?

OTOH, what you really need would be a "was parameter number <n> passed
in by the caller?" kind of test, i.e. the equivalent of the Bourne 
shell standard phrase

	if [ "x$5" != "x" ] 

I.e. a mix between the 'defined' and 'valid' operators, but for 'call'
parameters instead of user-defined variables or data file column values,
respectively.  Arguably valid() itself might be the one that should be
offering this.

> I propose to add "variable"  $#  which will be set to number of available
> $0, $1, ...

Please keep in mind that '#' is our comment character.  

-- 
Hans-Bernhard Broeker (br...@ph...)
Even if all the snow were burnt, ashes would remain.