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THE PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE OBERON
(Revision 1. 10. 90)
N.Wirth
Make it as simple as possible, but not simpler.
--A. Einstein
1. Introduction
Oberon is a general-purpose programming language that evolved from Modula-2.
Its principal new feature is the concept of type extension. It permits the
construction of new data types on the basis of existing ones and to relate
them.
This report is not intended as a programmer's tutorial. It is intentionally
kept concise. Its function is to serve as a reference for programmers,
implementors, and manual writers. What remains unsaid is mostly left so
intentionally, either because it is derivable from stated rules of the
language, or because it would require to commit the definition when a
general commitment appears as unwise.
2. Syntax
A language is an infinite set of sentences, namely the sentences well formed
according to its syntax. In Oberon, these sentences are called compilation
units. Each unit is a finite sequence of symbols from a finite vocabulary.
The vocabulary of Oberon consists of identifiers, numbers, strings, operators,
delimiters, and comments. They are called lexical symbols and are composed of
sequences of characters. (Note the distinction between symbols and characters.)
To describe the syntax, an extended Backus-Naur Formalism called EBNF is used.
Brackets [ and ] denote optionality of the enclosed sentential form, and
braces { and } denote its repetition (possibly 0 times). Syntactic entities
(non-terminal symbols) are denoted by English words expressing their intuitive
meaning. Symbols of the language vocabulary (terminal symbols) are denoted
by strings enclosed in quote marks or words written in capital letters,
so-called reserved words. Syntactic rules (productions) are marked by
a $ sign at the left margin of the line.
3. Vocabulary and representation
The representation of symbols in terms of characters is defined using the
ASCII set. Symbols are identifiers, numbers, strings, operators, delimiters,
and comments. The following lexical rules must be observed. Blanks and line
breaks must not occur within symbols (except in comments, and blanks in
strings). They are ignored unless they are essential to separate two
consecutive symbols. Capital and lower-case letters are considered as
being distinct.
3.1. Identifiers are sequences of letters and digits. The first character
must be a letter.
$ ident = letter {letter | digit}.
Examples: x scan Oberon GetSymbol firstLetter
3.2. Numbers are (unsigned) integers or real numbers. Integers are sequences
of digits and may be followed by a suffix letter. The type is the minimal
type to which the number belongs (see 6.1.). If no suffix is specified, the
representation is decimal. The suffix H indicates hexadecimal representation.
A real number always contains a decimal point. Optionally it may also contain
a decimal scale factor. The letter E (or D) is pronounced as "times ten to
the power of". A real number is of type REAL, unless it has a scale factor
containing the letter D; in this case it is of type LONGREAL.
$ number = integer | real.
$ integer = digit {digit} | digit {hexDigit} "H" .
$ real = digit {digit} "." {digit} [ScaleFactor].
$ ScaleFactor = ("E" | "D") ["+" | "-"] digit {digit}.
$ hexDigit = digit | "A" | "B" | "C" | "D" | "E" | "F".
$ digit = "0" | "1" | "2" | "3" | "4" | "5" | "6" | "7" | "8" | "9".
Examples:
1987
100H = 256
12.3
4.567E8 = 456700000
0.57712566D-6 = 0.00000057712566
3.3. Character constants are either denoted by a single character enclosed
in quote marks or by the ordinal number of the character in hexadecimal
notation followed by the letter X.
$ CharConstant = """ character """ | digit {hexDigit} "X".
3.4. Strings are sequences of characters enclosed in quote marks (").
A string cannot contain a quote mark. The number of characters in a
string is called the length of the string. Strings can be assigned to
and compared with arrays of characters (see 9.1 and 8.2.4).
$ string = """ {character} """ .
Examples: "OBERON" "Don't worry!"
3.5. Operators and delimiters are the special characters, character
pairs, or reserved words listed below. These reserved words consist
exclusively of capital letters and cannot be used in the role of
identifiers.
+ := ARRAY IS TO
- ^ BEGIN LOOP TYPE
* = CASE MOD UNTIL
/ # CONST MODULE VAR
~ < DIV NIL WHILE
& > DO OF WITH
. <= ELSE OR
, >= ELSIF POINTER
; .. END PROCEDURE
| : EXIT RECORD
( ) IF REPEAT
[ ] IMPORT RETURN
{ } IN THEN
3.6. Comments may be inserted between any two symbols in a program.
They are arbitrary character sequences opened by the bracket (* and
closed by *). Comments do not affect the meaning of a program.
4. Declarations and scope rules
Every identifier occurring in a program must be introduced by a
declaration, unless it is a predefined identifier. Declarations also
serve to specify certain permanent properties of an object, such as
whether it is a constant, a type, a variable, or a procedure.
The identifier is then used to refer to the associated object. This
is possible in those parts of a program only which are within the
scope of the declaration. No identifier may denote more than one
object within a given scope. The scope extends textually from the
point of the declaration to the end of the block (procedure or module)
to which the declaration belongs and hence to which the object is local.
The scope rule has the following amendments:
1. If a type T is defined as POINTER TO T1 (see 6.4), the
identifier T1 can be declared textually following the
declaration of T, but it must lie within the same scope.
2. Field identifiers of a record declaration (see 6.3)
are valid in field designators only.
In its declaration, an identifier in the global scope may be followed
by an export mark (*) to indicate that it be exported from its declaring
module. In this case, the identifier may be used in other modules, if
they import the declaring module. The identifier is then prefixed by
the identifier designating its module (see Ch. 11). The prefix and the
identifier are separated by a period and together are called a
qualified identifier.
$ qualident = [ident "."] ident.
$ identdef = ident ["*"].
The following identifiers are predefined; their meaning is defined
in the indicated sections:
ABS (10.2) LEN (10.2)
ASH (10.2) LONG (10.2)
BOOLEAN (6.1) LONGINT (6.1)
BYTE (6.1) LONGREAL(6.1)
CAP (10.2) MAX (10.2)
CHAR (6.1) MIN (10.2)
CHR (10.2) NEW (6.4)
DEC (10.2) ODD (10.2)
ENTIER (10.2) ORD (10.2)
EXCL (10.2) REAL (6.1)
FALSE (6.1) SET (6.1)
HALT (10.2) SHORT (10.2)
INC (10.2) SHORTINT(6.1)
INCL (10.2) SIZE (10.2)
INTEGER (6.1) TRUE (6.1)
5. Constant declarations
A constant declaration associates an identifier with a constant value.
$ ConstantDeclaration = identdef "=" ConstExpression.
$ ConstExpression = expression.
A constant expression can be evaluated by a mere textual scan without
actually executing the program. Its operands are constants (see Ch. 8).
Examples of constant declarations are
N = 100
limit = 2*N -1
all = {0 .. WordSize-1}
6. Type declarations
A data type determines the set of values which variables of that type
may assume, and the operators that are applicable. A type declaration
is used to associate an identifier with the type. Such association
may be with unstructured (basic) types, or it may be with structured
types, in which case it defines the structure of variables of this
type and, by implication, the operators that are applicable to the
components.
There are two different structures, namely arrays and records, with
different component selectors.
$ TypeDeclaration = identdef "=" type.
$ type = qualident | ArrayType | RecordType |
$ PointerType | ProcedureType.
Examples:
Table = ARRAY N OF REAL
Tree = POINTER TO Node
Node = RECORD key: INTEGER;
left, right: Tree
END
CenterNode = RECORD (Node)
name: ARRAY 32 OF CHAR;
subnode: Tree
END
Function* = PROCEDURE (x: INTEGER): INTEGER
6.1. Basic types
The following basic types are denoted by predeclared identifiers.
The associated operators are defined in 8.2, and the predeclared
function procedures in 10.2. The values of a given basic type
are the following:
1. BOOLEAN the truth values TRUE and FALSE.
2. CHAR the characters of the extended ASCII set (0X ... 0FFX).
3. SHORTINT the integers between -128 and 127.
4. INTEGER the integers between MIN(INTEGER) and MAX(INTEGER).
5. LONGINT the integers between MIN(LONGINT) and MAX(LONGINT).
6. REAL real numbers between MIN(REAL) and MAX(REAL).
7. LONGREAL real numbers between MIN(LONGREAL) and MAX(LONGREAL).
8. SET the sets of integers between 0 and MAX(SET).
Types 3 to 5 are integer types, 6 and 7 are real types, and together
they are called numeric types. They form a hierarchy; the larger type
includes (the values of) the smaller type:
LONGREAL >= REAL >= LONGINT >= INTEGER >= SHORTINT
6.2. Array types
An array is a structure consisting of a fixed number of elements which
are all of the same type, called the element type. The number of
elements of an array is called its length. The elements of the array
are designated by indices, which are integers between 0 and the
length minus 1.
$ ArrayType = ARRAY length {"," length} OF type.
$ length = ConstExpression.
A declaration of the form ARRAY N0, N1, ... , Nk OF T is understood
as an abbreviation of the declaration
ARRAY N0 OF
ARRAY N1 OF
...
ARRAY Nk OF T
Examples of array types:
ARRAY N OF INTEGER
ARRAY 10, 20 OF REAL
6.3. Record types
A record type is a structure consisting of a fixed number of elements
of possibly different types. The record type declaration specifies
for each element, called field, its type and an identifier which
denotes the field. The scope of these field identifiers is the record
definition itself, but they are also visible within field designators
(see 8.1) referring to elements of record variables.
$ RecordType = RECORD ["(" BaseType ")"] FieldListSequence END.
$ BaseType = qualident.
$ FieldListSequence = FieldList {";" FieldList}.
$ FieldList = [IdentList ":" type].
$ IdentList = identdef {"," identdef}.
If a record type is exported, field identifiers that are to be visible
outside the declaring module must be marked. They are called public
fields; unmarked fields are called private fields.
Record types are extensible, i.e. a record type can be defined as an
extension of another record type. In the examples above, CenterNode
(directly) extends Node, which is the (direct) base type of CenterNode.
More specifically, CenterNode extends Node with the fields name
and subnode.
Definition: A type T0 extends a type T, if it equals T, or if it
directly extends an extension of T. Conversely, a type T is a base
type of T0, if it equals T0, or if it is the direct base type of a
base type of T0.
Examples of record types:
RECORD day, month, year: INTEGER
END
RECORD
name, firstname: ARRAY 32 OF CHAR;
age: INTEGER;
salary: REAL
END
6.4. Pointer types
Variables of a pointer type P assume as values pointers to variables
of some type T. The pointer type P is said to be bound to T, and T
is the pointer base type of P. T must be a record or array type.
Pointer types inherit the extension relation of their base types.
If a type T0 is an extension of T and P0 is a pointer type bound
to T0, then P0 is also an extension of P.
$ PointerType = POINTER TO type.
If p is a variable of type P = POINTER TO T, then a call of the
predefined procedure NEW(p) has the following effect (see 10.2):
A variable of type T is allocated in free storage, and a pointer
to it is assigned to p. This pointer p is of type P; the referenced
variable p^ is of type T. Failure of allocation results in p
obtaining the value NIL.
Any pointer variable may be assigned the value NIL, which points
to no variable at all.
6.5. Procedure types
Variables of a procedure type T have a procedure (or NIL) as value.
If a procedure P is assigned to a procedure variable of type T, the
(types of the) formal parameters of P must be the same as those
indicated in the formal parameters of T. The same holds for the
result type in the case of a function procedure (see 10.1). P must
not be declared local to another procedure, and neither can it be a
predefined procedure.
$ ProcedureType = PROCEDURE [FormalParameters].
7. Variable declarations
Variable declarations serve to introduce variables and associate
them with identifiers that must be unique within the given scope.
They also serve to associate fixed data types with the variables.
$ VariableDeclaration = IdentList ":" type.
Variables whose identifiers appear in the same list are all of the
same type.
Examples of variable declarations (refer to examples in Ch. 6):
i, j, k:INTEGER
x, y: REAL
p, q: BOOLEAN
s: SET
f: Function
a: ARRAY 100 OF REAL
w: ARRAY 16 OF
RECORD ch: CHAR;
count: INTEGER
END
t: Tree
8. Expressions
Expressions are constructs denoting rules of computation whereby
constants and current values of variables are combined to derive
other values by the application of operators and function procedures.
Expressions consist of operands and operators. Parentheses may be
used to express specific associations of operators and operands.
8.1. Operands
With the exception of sets and literal constants, i.e. numbers and
character strings, operands are denoted by designators. A designator
consists of an identifier referring to the constant, variable, or
procedure to be designated. This identifier may possibly be qualified
by module identifiers (see Ch. 4 and 11), and it may be followed by
selectors, if the designated object is an element of a structure.
If A designates an array, then A[E] denotes that element of A whose
index is the current value of the expression E. The type of E must be
an integer type. A designator of the form A[E1, E2, ... , En] stands
for A[E1][E2] ... [En]. If p designates a pointer variable, p^ denotes
the variable which is referenced by p. If r designates a record,
then r.f denotes the field f of r. If p designates a pointer,
p.f denotes the field f of the record p^, i.e. the dot implies
dereferencing and p.f stands for p^.f, and p[E] denotes the element
of p^ with index E.
The typeguard v(T0) asserts that v is of type T0, i.e. it aborts
program execution, if it is not of type T0. The guard is applicable, if
1. T0 is an extension of the declared type T of v, and if
2. v is a variable parameter of record type or v is a pointer.
$ designator = qualident {"." ident | "[" ExpList "]" |
$ "(" qualident ")" | "^" }.
$ ExpList = expression {"," expression}.
If the designated object is a variable, then the designator refers
to the variable's current value. If the object is a procedure,
a designator without parameter list refers to that procedure. If it
is followed by a (possibly empty) parameter list, the designator
implies an activation of the procedure and stands for the value
resulting from its execution. The (types of the) actual parameters
must correspond to the formal parameters as specified in the
procedure's declaration (see Ch. 10).
Examples of designators (see examples in Ch. 7):
i (INTEGER)
a[i] (REAL)
w[3].ch (CHAR)
t.key (INTEGER)
t.left.right (Tree)
t(CenterNode).subnode (Tree)
8.2. Operators
The syntax of expressions distinguishes between four classes of
operators with different precedences (binding strengths). The
operator ~ has the highest precedence, followed by multiplication
operators, addition operators, and relations. Operators of the
same precedence associate from left to right. For example, x-y-z
stands for (x-y)-z.
$ expression = SimpleExpression [relation SimpleExpression].
$ relation = "=" | "#" | "<" | "<=" | ">" | ">=" | IN | IS.
$ SimpleExpression = ["+"|"-"] term {AddOperator term}.
$ AddOperator = "+" | "-" | OR .
$ term = factor {MulOperator factor}.
$ MulOperator = "*" | "/" | DIV | MOD | "&" .
$ factor = number | CharConstant | string | NIL | set |
$ designator [ActualParameters] | "(" expression ")" | "~" factor.
$ set = "{" [element {"," element}] "}".
$ element = expression [".." expression].
$ ActualParameters = "(" [ExpList] ")" .
The available operators are listed in the following tables. In some
instances, several different operations are designated by the same
operator symbol. In these cases, the actual operation is identified
by the type of the operands.
8.2.1. Logical operators
symbol result
OR logical disjunction
& logical conjunction
~ negation
These operators apply to BOOLEAN operands and yield a BOOLEAN result.
p OR q stands for "if p then TRUE, else q"
p & q stands for "if p then q, else FALSE"
~ p stands for "not p"
8.2.2. Arithmetic operators
symbol result
+ sum
- difference
* product
/ quotient
DIV integer quotient
MOD modulus
The operators +, -, *, and / apply to operands of numeric types.
The type of the result is that operand's type which includes the other
operand's type, except for division (/), where the result is the real
type which includes both operand types. When used as operators with
a single operand, - denotes sign inversion and + denotes the
identity operation.
The operators DIV and MOD apply to integer operands only. They are
related by the following formulas defined for any dividend x and
positive divisors y:
x = (x DIV y) * y + (x MOD y)
0 <= (x MOD y) < y.
8.2.3. Set operators
symbol result
+ union
- difference
* intersection
/ symmetric set difference
The monadic minus sign denotes the complement of x, i.e. -x denotes
the set of integers between 0 and MAX(SET) which are not elements of x.
x - y = x * (-y)
x / y = (x-y) + (y-x)
8.2.4. Relations
symbol relation
= equal
# unequal
< less
<= less or equal
> greater
>= greater or equal
IN set membership
IS type test
Relations are Boolean. The ordering relations <, <=, >, and >= apply
to the numeric types, CHAR, and character arrays (strings). The
relations = and # also apply to the type BOOLEAN and to set, pointer,
and procedure types. x IN s stands for "x is an element of s".
x must be of an integer type, and s of type SET.
v IS T stands for "v is of type T" and is called a type test. It is
applicable, if
1. T is an extension of the declared type T0 of v, and if
2. v is a variable parameter of record type or v is a pointer.
Assuming, for instance, that T is an extension of T0 and that v is
a designator declared of type T0, then the test "v IS T" determines
whether the actually designated variable is (not only a T0, but
also) a T. The value of NIL IS T is undefined.
Examples of expressions (refer to examples in Ch. 7):
1987 (INTEGER)
i DIV 3 (INTEGER)
~p OR q (BOOLEAN)
(i+j) * (i-j) (INTEGER)
s - {8, 9, 13} (SET)
i + x (REAL)
a[i+j] * a[i-j] (REAL)
(0<=i) & (i<100) (BOOLEAN)
t.key = 0 (BOOLEAN)
k IN {i .. j-1} (BOOLEAN)
t IS CenterNode (BOOLEAN)
9. Statements
Statements denote actions. There are elementary and structured statements.
Elementary statements are not composed of any parts that are themselves
statements. They are the assignment, the procedure call, and the return
and exit statements.
Structured statements are composed of parts that are themselves statements.
They are used to express sequencing and conditional, selective, and
repetitive execution.
A statement may also be empty, in which case it denotes no action. The
empty statement is included in order to relax punctuation rules in
statement sequences.
$ statement = [assignment | ProcedureCall |
$ IfStatement | CaseStatement | WhileStatement | RepeatStatement |
$ LoopStatement | WithStatement | EXIT | RETURN [expression] ].
9.1. Assignments
The assignment serves to replace the current value of a variable by
a new value specified by an expression. The assignment operator
is written as ":=" and pronounced as becomes.
$ assignment = designator ":=" expression.
The type of the expression must be included by the type of the variable,
or it must extend the type of the variable. The following exceptions hold:
1.The constant NIL can be assigned to variables of any
pointer or procedure type.
2. Strings can be assigned to any variable whose type is
an array of characters, provided the length of the string
is less than that of the array. If a string s of length n
is assigned to an array a , the result is
a[i] = si for i = 0 ... n-1, and a[n] = 0X.
Examples of assignments (see examples in Ch. 7):
i := 0
p := i = j
x := i + 1
k := log2(i+j)
F := log2
s := {2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13}
a[i] := (x+y) * (x-y)
t.key := i
w[i+1].ch := "A"
9.2. Procedure calls
A procedure call serves to activate a procedure. The procedure call
may contain a list of actual parameters which are substituted in place
of their corresponding formal parameters defined in the procedure
declaration (see Ch. 10). The correspondence is established by the
positions of the parameters in the lists of actual and formal parameters
respectively. There exist two kinds of parameters: variable and
value parameters.
In the case of variable parameters, the actual parameter must be
a designator denoting a variable. If it designates an element of
a structured variable, the selector is evaluated when the formal/actual
parameter substitution takes place, i.e. before the execution of the
procedure. If the parameter is a value parameter, the corresponding
actual parameter must be an expression. This expression is evaluated
prior to the procedure activation, and the resulting value is assigned
to the formal parameter which now constitutes a local variable
(see also 10.1.).
$ ProcedureCall = designator [ActualParameters].
Examples of procedure calls:
ReadInt(i) (see Ch. 10)
WriteInt(j*2+1, 6)
INC(w[k].count)
9.3. Statement sequences
Statement sequences denote the sequence of actions specified by the
component statements which are separated by semicolons.
$ StatementSequence = statement {";" statement}.
9.4. If statements
$ IfStatement = IF expression THEN StatementSequence
$ {ELSIF expression THEN StatementSequence}
$ [ELSE StatementSequence]
$ END.
If statements specify the conditional execution of guarded statements.
The Boolean expression preceding a statement is called its guard.
The guards are evaluated in sequence of occurrence, until one evaluates
to TRUE, whereafter its associated statement sequence is executed. If no
guard is satisfied, the statement sequence following the symbol ELSE is
executed, if there is one.
Example:
IF (ch >= "A") & (ch <= "Z") THEN ReadIdentifier
ELSIF (ch >= "0") & (ch <= "9") THEN ReadNumber
ELSIF ch = 22X THEN ReadString
END
9.5. Case statements
Case statements specify the selection and execution of a statement sequence
according to the value of an expression. First the case expression
is evaluated, then the statement sequence is executed whose case label list
contains the obtained value. The case expression and all labels must be
of the same type, which must be an integer type or CHAR. Case labels are
constants, and no value must occur more than once. If the value of
the expression does not occur as a label of any case, the statement sequence
following the symbol ELSE is selected, if there is one. Otherwise it is
considered as an error.
$ CaseStatement = CASE expression OF case {"|" case}
$ [ELSE StatementSequence] END.
$ case = [CaseLabelList ":" StatementSequence].
$ CaseLabelList = CaseLabels {"," CaseLabels}.
$ CaseLabels = ConstExpression [".." ConstExpression].
Example:
CASE ch OF
"A" .. "Z": ReadIdentifier
| "0" .. "9": ReadNumber
| 22X : ReadString
ELSE SpecialCharacter
END
9.6. While statements
While statements specify repetition. If the Boolean expression (guard)
yields TRUE, the statement sequence is executed. The expression
evaluation and the statement execution are repeated as long as the
Boolean expression yields TRUE.
$ WhileStatement = WHILE expression DO StatementSequence END.
Examples:
WHILE j > 0 DO
j := j DIV 2; i := i+1
END
WHILE (t # NIL) & (t.key # i) DO
t := t.left
END
9.7. Repeat Statements
A repeat statement specifies the repeated execution of a statement sequence
until a condition is satisfied. The statement sequence is executed at
least once.
$ RepeatStatement = REPEAT StatementSequence UNTIL expression.
9.8. Loop statements
A loop statement specifies the repeated execution of a statement sequence.
It is terminated by the execution of any exit statement within that
sequence (see 9.9).
$ LoopStatement = LOOP StatementSequence END.
Example:
LOOP
IF t1 = NIL THEN EXIT END ;
IF k < t1.key THEN t2 := t1.left; p := TRUE
ELSIF k > t1.key THEN t2 := t1.right; p := FALSE
ELSE EXIT
END
END ;
Although while and repeat statements can be expressed by loop statements
containing a single exit statement, the use of while and repeat statements
is recommended in the most frequently occurring situations, where
termination depends on a single condition determined either at the
beginning or the end of the repeated statement sequence. The loop statement
is useful to express cases with several termination conditions and points.
9.9. Return and exit statements
A return statement consists of the symbol RETURN, possibly followed by
an expression. It indicates the termination of a procedure, and the
expression specifies the result of a function procedure. Its type
must be identical to the result type specified in the procedure
heading (see Ch. 10).
Function procedures require the presence of a return statement
indicating the result value. There may be several, although only one
will be executed. In proper procedures, a return statement is implied
by the end of the procedure body. An explicit return statement therefore
appears as an additional (probably exceptional) termination point.
An exit statement consists of the symbol EXIT. It specifies termination
of the enclosing loop statement and continuation with the statement
following that loop statement. Exit statements are contextually, although
not syntactically bound to the loop statement which contains them.
9.10. With statements
If a pointer variable or a variable parameter with record structure is of
a type T0, it may be designated in the heading of a with clause together
with a type T that is an extension of T0. Then the variable is guarded
within the with statement as if it had been declared of type T. The
with statement assumes a role similar to the type guard, extending the
guard over an entire statement sequence. It may be regarded as a
regional type guard.
$ WithStatement = WITH qualident ":" qualident DO StatementSequence END .
Example:
WITH t: CenterNode DO name := t.name; L := t.subnode END
10. Procedure declarations
Procedure declarations consist of a procedure heading and a
procedure body. The heading specifies the procedure identifier,
the formal parameters, and the result type (if any). The body
contains declarations and statements. The procedure identifier
is repeated at the end of the procedure declaration.
There are two kinds of procedures, namely proper procedures and
function procedures. The latter are activated by a function designator
as a constituent of an expression, and yield a result that is
an operand in the expression. Proper procedures are activated
by a procedure call. The function procedure is distinguished
in the declaration by indication of the type of its result following
the parameter list. Its body must contain a RETURN statement
which defines the result of the function procedure.
All constants, variables, types, and procedures declared within
a procedure body are local to the procedure. The values of local variables
are undefined upon entry to the procedure. Since procedures may
be declared as local objects too, procedure declarations may be nested.
In addition to its formal parameters and locally declared objects,
the objects declared in the environment of the procedure are also
visible in the procedure (with the exception of those objects that
have the same name as an object declared locally).
The use of the procedure identifier in a call within its declaration
implies recursive activation of the procedure.
$ ProcedureDeclaration = ProcedureHeading ";" ProcedureBody ident.
$ ProcedureHeading = PROCEDURE ["*"] identdef [FormalParameters].
$ ProcedureBody = DeclarationSequence [BEGIN StatementSequence] END.
$ ForwardDeclaration = PROCEDURE "^" identdef [FormalParameters].
$ DeclarationSequence = {CONST {ConstantDeclaration ";"} |
$ TYPE {TypeDeclaration ";"} | VAR {VariableDeclaration ";"}}
$ {ProcedureDeclaration ";" | ForwardDeclaration ";"}.
A forward declaration serves to allow forward references to a procedure
that appears later in the text in full. The actual declaration - which
specifies the body - must indicate the same parameters and result
type (if any) as the forward declaration, and it must be within the
same scope. An asterisk following the symbol PROCEDURE is a hint to the
compiler and specifies that the procedure is to be usable as parameter
and assignable to variables of a compatible procedure type.
10.1. Formal parameters
Formal parameters are identifiers which denote actual parameters specified
in the procedure call. The correspondence between formal and actual
parameters is established when the procedure is called. There are
two kinds of parameters, namely value and variable parameters. The kind
is indicated in the formal parameter list. Value parameters stand for
local variables to which the result of the evaluation of the corresponding
actual parameter is assigned as initial value. Variable parameters correspond
to actual parameters that are variables, and they stand for these variables.
Variable parameters are indicated by the symbol VAR, value parameters by the
absence of the symbol VAR. A function procedure without parameters must have
an empty parameter list. It must be called by a function designator
whose actual parameter list is empty too.
Formal parameters are local to the procedure, i.e. their scope is the
program text which constitutes the procedure declaration.
$ FormalParameters = "(" [FPSection {";" FPSection}] ")" [":" qualident].
$ FPSection = [VAR] ident {"," ident} ":" FormalType.
$ FormalType = {ARRAY OF} (qualident | ProcedureType).
The type of each formal parameter is specified in the parameter list.
For variable parameters, it must be identical to the corresponding
actual parameter's type, except in the case of a record, where it must be
a base type of the corresponding actual parameter's type. For value parameters,
the rule of assignment holds (see 9.1). If the formal parameter's type
is specified as
ARRAY OF T
the parameter is said to be an open array parameter, and the corresponding
actual parameter may be any array with element type T.
If a formal parameter specifies a procedure type, then the corresponding
actual parameter must be either a procedure declared at level 0 or
a variable (or parameter) of that procedure type. It cannot be a
predefined procedure. The result type of a procedure can be neither
a record nor an array.
Examples of procedure declarations:
PROCEDURE ReadInt(VAR x: INTEGER);
VAR i : INTEGER; ch: CHAR;
BEGIN i := 0; Read(ch);
WHILE ("0" <= ch) & (ch <= "9") DO
i := 10*i + (ORD(ch)-ORD("0")); Read(ch)
END ;
x := i
END ReadInt
PROCEDURE WriteInt(x: INTEGER); (* 0 <= x < 10^5 *)
VAR i: INTEGER;
buf: ARRAY 5 OF INTEGER;
BEGIN i := 0;
REPEAT buf[i] := x MOD 10; x := x DIV 10; INC(i) UNTIL x = 0;
REPEAT DEC(i); Write(CHR(buf[i] + ORD("0"))) UNTIL i = 0
END WriteInt
PROCEDURE log2(x: INTEGER): INTEGER;
VAR y: INTEGER; (*assume x>0*)
BEGIN y := 0;
WHILE x > 1 DO x := x DIV 2; INC(y) END ;
RETURN y
END log2
10.2. Predefined procedures
The following table lists the predefined procedures. Some are
generic procedures, i.e. they apply to several types of operands.
v stands for a variable, x and n for expressions, and T for a type.
Function procedures:
Name Argument type Result type Function
ABS(x) numeric type type of x absolute value
ODD(x) integer type BOOLEAN x MOD 2 = 1
CAP(x) CHAR CHAR corresponding capital letter
ASH(x,n) x, n: integer LONGINT x * 2n, arithmetic shift
LEN(v,n) v: array LONGINT the length of v in dimension n
n: integer type
LEN(v) is equivalent to LEN(v, 0)
MAX(T) T = basic type T maximum value of type T
T = SET INTEGER maximum element of sets
MIN(T) T = basic type T minimum value of type T
T = SET INTEGER 0
SIZE(T) T = any type integer type no. of bytes required by T
Type conversion procedures:
Name Argument type Result type Function
ORD(x) CHAR INTEGER ordinal number of x
CHR(x) integer type CHAR character with ordinal number x
SHORT(x) LONGINT INTEGER identity
INTEGER SHORTINT
LONGREAL REAL (truncation possible)
LONG(x) SHORTINT INTEGER identity
INTEGER LONGINT
REAL LONGREAL
ENTIER(x) real type LONGINT largest integer not greater than x
Note that ENTIER(i/j) = i DIV j
Proper procedures:
Name Argument types Function
INC(v) integer type v := v+1
INC(v,x) integer type v := v+x
DEC(v) integer type v := v-1
DEC(v,x) integer type v := v-x
INCL(v,x) v: SET;
x: integer type v := v + {x}
EXCL(v,x) v: SET;
x: integer type v := v - {x}
COPY(x,v) x: character array, string
v: character array v := x
NEW(v) pointer type allocate v^
HALT(x) integer constant terminate program execution
The second parameter of INC and DEC may be omitted, in which case
its default value is 1. In HALT(x), x is a parameter whose interpretation
is left to the underlying system implementation.
11. Modules
A module is a collection of declarations of constants, types, variables,
and procedures, and a sequence of statements for the purpose of
assigning initial values to the variables. A module typically constitutes
a text that is compilable as a unit.
$ module = MODULE ident ";" [ImportList] DeclarationSequence
$ [BEGIN StatementSequence] END ident "." .
$ ImportList = IMPORT import {"," import} ";" .
$ import = ident [":=" ident].
The import list specifies the modules of which the module is a client.
If an identifier x is exported from a module M, and if M is listed in
a module's import list, then x is referred to as M.x.
If the form "M := M1" is used in the import list, that object declared
within M1 is referenced as M.x .
Identifiers that are to be visible in client modules, i.e. outside
the declaring module, must be marked by an export mark in
their declaration.
The statement sequence following the symbol BEGIN is executed when
the module is added to a system (loaded). Individual (parameterless)
procedures can thereafter be activated from the system, and these
procedures serve as commands.
Example:
MODULE Out;
(*exported procedures: Write, WriteInt, WriteLn*)
IMPORT Texts, Oberon;
VAR W: Texts.Writer;
PROCEDURE Write*(ch: CHAR);
BEGIN Texts.Write(W, ch)
END Write;
PROCEDURE WriteInt*(x, n: LONGINT);
VAR i: INTEGER; a: ARRAY 16 OF CHAR;
BEGIN i := 0;
IF x < 0 THEN Texts.Write(W, "-"); x := -x END ;
REPEAT a[i] := CHR(x MOD 10 + ORD("0")); x := x DIV 10; INC(i) UNTIL x = 0;
REPEAT Texts.Write(W, " "); DEC(n) UNTIL n <= i;
REPEAT DEC(i); Texts.Write(W, a[i]) UNTIL i = 0
END WriteInt;
PROCEDURE WriteLn*;
BEGIN Texts.WriteLn(W); Texts.Append(Oberon.Log, W.buf)
END WriteLn;
BEGIN Texts.OpenWriter(W)
END Out.
12. The Module SYSTEM
The module SYSTEM contains definitions that are necessary
to program low-level operations referring directly to resources
particular to a given computer and/or implementation. These include
for example facilities for accessing devices that are controlled by the
computer, and facilities to break the data type compatibility rules
otherwise imposed by the language definition. It is recommended
to restrict their use to specific low-level modules. Such modules
are inherently non-portable, but easily recognized due to the
identifier SYSTEM appearing in their import lists. The subsequent
definitions are applicable to most modern computers; however, individual
implementations may include in this module definitions that are particular
to the specific, underlying computer.
Module SYSTEM exports the data type BYTE. No representation of values
is specified. Instead, certain compatibility rules with other types
are given:
1. The type BYTE is compatible with CHAR and SHORTINT.
2. If a formal parameter is of type ARRAY OF BYTE, then
the corresponding actual parameter may be of any type.
The procedures contained in module SYSTEM are listed in the following
tables. They correspond to single instructions compiled as in-line code.
For details, the reader is referred to the processor manual.
v stands for a variable, x, y, a, and n for expressions, and T for a type.
Function procedures:
Name Argument types Result type Function
ADR(v) any LONGINT address of variable v
BIT(a, n) a: LONGINT BOOLEAN bit n of Mem[a]
n: integer type
CC(n) integer constant BOOLEAN Condition n (0 <= n < 16)
LSH(x,n) x:integer type or SET type of x logical shift
n:integer type
ROT(x, n) x:integer type or SET type of x rotation
n: integer type
VAL(T, x) T, x: any type T x interpreted as of type T
Proper procedures:
Name Argument types Function
GET(a,v) a: LONGINT; v: any basic type v := Mem[a]
PUT(a, x) a: LONGINT; x: any basic type Mem[a] := x
MOVE(s, d, n) s, d: LONGINT; n: integer type Mem[d] ... Mem[d+n-1]
:= Mem[s] ... Mem[s+n-1]
NEW(v, n) v: any pointer type allocate storage block
n: integer type of n bytes,
assign its address to v
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Oberon Language Report
Oberon-M(tm) for the MSDOS Environment
For specific MSDOS information, see the README file in the
Oberon-M distribution package.
E. R. Videki
P.O. Box 58
Morgan Hill, California 95038
U.S.A.
erv@k2.everest.tandem.com