[Info-vax] VAX Macro to C conversion

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 7/10/2019 8:20 PM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
> On 7/10/19 5:22 PM, Dave Froble wrote:
>> On 7/10/2019 2:10 PM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>>> Because frequently (most times) "making it easier" involves hamstringing
>>> the programmer.

>> As an example, yes, string descriptors can be used in C.  But as far 
>> as I know, which isn't much, the programmer must set up the 
>> descriptors. However, in Basic, it's not required to declare a string, 
>> just use it, and it's there.  Now, how does this case of "easier" 
>> hamstring the programmer?
> 
> If the string is defined in a certain way, like it is in BASIC,
> your hamstrung if you want to use some other form of string.  If
> you wanted to pass a null-terminated string from BASIC to some
> other language, how would you do it?

Calling from a language with one type of string to a language with
another type of string is possible if there are some interop
capabilities present.

In many VMS languages with a string type it is possible to make
a pass by reference and manual appending the nul byte to call C.

This is not nice code.

But luckily it is a relative rare thing to do compared to how
much string's are used in general.

Arne