[Oberon] How to mimic an associative array

[Duke Normandin]

On Thu, 2 Dec 2010, Jan Verhoeven wrote:

> > FORM[name]="Duke"
> > FORM[age]=63
>
> That's easy.
>
> CONST	name = 0;
> 	age = 1;
> 	sex = 2;
> 	address = 3;
>
> and then just index as you wish.

Not quite! I'm writing a generic CGI library/module. This module
should import/implement associative arrays so that _any_ QUERY_STRING
content can be processed.

My various CGI scripts will then IMPORT the CGI module which will
"export" certain procedures to "process" QUERY_STRING, PATH_INFO AND
STDIN.

> > Associative array functionality is built into Perl, so we never had
> > to deal with the implementation details. I would have though that
> > after all these years, Oberon would have had a module kicking around
> > that offered the same functionality.
>
> Oberon development has halted many years ago.


> Also, it's hard to express the associative thingy in an EBNF formula.
> Perl, Python, Tcl. These are scripting tools for quick and dirty scripts
> that are needed today. Not tomorrow anymore. Then a new one is needed.

The quick and dirty, are _still_ around; still being developed; still
very useful. :) Have a look at CPAN: http://www.cpan.org/

> Unfortunately the world has accepted scripting tools as a programming
> environment. Eating up many processor cycles. Eating up lots of energy.
> Killing the icebears in your back yard. :o)

Using the correct for the job! Have a tool-belt with a few "good"
tools. Scripting languages are one of the tools. I'm trying to adapt
O2 to a venue that has traditionally been serviced by interpreted
scripting tools. Although that not quite true. When the Web was first
developed, CGI scripts were really compiled C programs - the source
code living in "cgi-src" and the binary living in "cgi-bin". That's
where we get the familiar /cgi-bin/ URL segment. :)

-- 
Duke