Re: [ooc-compiler] Choosing sufficiently long array for out parameter

[August K. <fus...@co...>]

Michael van Acken wrote:
> On 29/11/05, *August Karlstrom* <fus...@co... 
> <mailto:fus...@co...>> wrote:
> 
>     Hi,
> 
>     The procedure GetText in Msg has the signature
> 
>         PROCEDURE (msg: Msg) GetText(VAR text: ARRAY OF CHAR)
> 
>     How do I make sure the message fits in `text'?
> 
> 
> 
> Beforehand, you can't.  What you can do is check if the  result
> maxes out the array, and call again with a larger array if this
> is the case.  Repeat until not maxed out.  Not very elegant, I
> know :-)

OK, I see. This is (of course) a general problem in Oberon. In C we can 
just return a pointer to a constant string so there is no need to either 
allocate a buffer or know the size of it. In defense of Oberon, a C 
program may crash if we inadvertently try to write to a constant string. 
Still a bit annoying though.


August