[Oberon] Memory allocation

Frans-Pieter Vonck fp at vonck.nl
Mon Jan 17 16:11:31 CET 2011


Hello Jan and Jorg,

i have found material about database programming in a the powerpoint of
Jurg Gutknecht. In februari 2001 he held a lecture called "Methodology of
programming with Oberon Foundations of Imperative programming Basic
Algorithms and Data Structures".
I found it interesting because he gave examples of using formal
specifications of programmes with Oberon.
One of the sheets (pg 65) is called Case Study Database Relations.
subject: computation of Join over f,g,h (with f,g,h lexographical orderd
with end sentinel.)
I made a printout of this particular sheet because it shows a rare
combination of Hoare Logic, relational logic and an imperative programming
language. (This does not mean I understand it all, I'm still grinding my
teath on Hoare Logic and try to submerse myself every summervacation into
The Discipline of Programming hoping hoping that it will sort of
osmotically enters my brain, still not growing a beard though.)

Maybe someone from the list still has a copy a available of Gutknecht's
lecture.
In the meantime I will blow the dust of of some of my old desktops and
look for the file.

BTW: old Modula-2 examples of databases are easely to find


Greets,
F.P.

> Hello Jörg
>
> On Sunday 16 January 2011 10:54:26 Jörg Straube wrote:
>> Hi
>>
>> The declaration part of your generic database module could look
>> something like this:
>>
>> MODULE Reflex;
>>
>> TYPE
>>   FieldDesc = RECORD
>>     fieldType: INTEGER
>>   END;
>>   Field* = POINTER TO FieldDesc;
>>
>>   IntDesc = RECORD (FieldDesc)
>>     val*: INTEGER;
>>   END;
>>   Integer* = POINTER TO IntDesc;
>>
>>   StrDesc = RECORD (FieldDesc)
>>     val*: ARRAY 30 OF CHAR;
>>   END;
>>   String* = POINTER TO StrDesc;
>>
>>   Record* = RECORD
>>     f*: POINTER TO ARRAY OF Field;
>>     listFields*: PROCEDURE();  (* writes all field values to the
>> screen *) store*: PROCEDURE()         (* stores the record to a file
>> *) END;
>
> The last few years I have some trouble with very abstract thinking, but
> I  had a hunch it would come down to something like this.
> Thanks for the help. This gives me a clue how to continue. Much obliged.
>
>>   PROCEDURE NewInt*(i: INTEGER): Integer;
>>   PROCEDURE NewStr*(s: ARRAY OF CHAR): String;
>>
>> END Reflex;
>>
>> Then if you want to create and initialize a two-field
>> record in your code, you would write
>>
>>   VAR
>>     r: Reflex.Record;
>>     i: Reflex.Integer;
>>     s: Reflex.String;
>>   BEGIN
>>     NEW(r.f, 2);
>>     r.f[0] := Reflex.NewInt(3);           (* r.f[0].val = 3 *)
>>     r.f[1] := Reflex.NewStr("Hello");  (* r.f[1].val = "Hello" *)
>>     r.listFields();
>>     (* the rest of your code *)
>>
>> If you want to create a 20-field record you would write something
>> like
>>
>>   VAR r: Reflex.Record;
>>   BEGIN
>>     NEW (r.fields, 20);
>>     (* the rest of your code *)
>>
>>
>> br
>> Joerg
>>
>> On 16.01.2011, at 03:28, Jan Verhoeven wrote:
>> > Hi Chris,
>> >
>> > Thanks for your answer.
>> >
>> > In the late 80's I used Borland's "Reflex" database engine. I have
>> > never since seen a better database than Reflex. It could store
>> > data, analyze the data and make graphs and tables on the fly.
>> >
>> > In Reflex I could make a two-field record, but also a 20 field mxed
>> > type record. Both records of course have different memory
>> > footprints and would need different amounts  of memory to allocate.
>> > Inside a record (the structure of which is unknown at compile time
>> > of course) there could be integers, formulas and strings in a mixed
>> > fashion. So one would need to be able to walk through the fields of
>> > the record in a universal way.
>> >
>> > At the moment, the only way to do such things is by assigning a
>> > pointer to byte and 'walking through' the bytes of that record.
>> >
>> > --
>> > Met vriendelijke groeten,
>> >
>> > Jan Verhoeven
>> > http://www.verhoeven272.nl
>> >
>> > --
>> > Oberon at lists.inf.ethz.ch mailing list for ETH Oberon and related
>> > systems https://lists.inf.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/oberon
>>
>> --
>> Oberon at lists.inf.ethz.ch mailing list for ETH Oberon and related
>> systems https://lists.inf.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/oberon
>
>
>
> --
> Met vriendelijke groeten,
>
> Jan Verhoeven
> http://www.verhoeven272.nl
>
> --
> Oberon at lists.inf.ethz.ch mailing list for ETH Oberon and related systems
> https://lists.inf.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/oberon
>
>





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