Shareware Overload/ShartewareOverload.cdr/progm/m2t-1.zip/CHAP03.TXT

Text File | 1989-01-18 | 36KB | 764 lines

                                                     Chapter 3

                                THE SIMPLE MODULA-2 DATA TYPES



TYPES ARE IMPORTANT
______________________________________________________________

The material in this chapter is extremely important to you as
you strive to become a good Modula-2 programmer, but you may
also find it to be somewhat tedious because it contains so
many facts.  This material is needed in order to develop the
topics in the next few chapters, but all of the details are
not necessarily required.  For that reason, you may wish to
go through it rather rapidly picking up the high points and
come back to this chapter for the details later when they will
be much more meaningful.  Do not completely pass over this
material at this time or the next few chapters will be
meaningless.  If you are already highly experienced in other
programming languages, you may be able to survive the next few
chapters without this material, but keep in mind that Modula-
2 has a few unique constructs.

The most important basic principle in this chapter is the
introduction of the data type.  The type of a variable defines
a range of values the variable can have assigned to it and it
also defines a set of operations that are available for use
with the variable.  By the proper application of data typing,
the system checks your usage of values to see that you use
them in a reasonable manner.


MODULA-2 IS CHANGING
______________________________________________________________

Because Modula-2 is changing based on experience with use,
some of these programs may not compile correctly.  Every
effort was made to make the example programs as error free as
possible but due to slight changes in the language, you may
have a few compilation problems.  We will say more about this
after we develop a few topics so we can talk more
intelligently about it.

Of course, due to slight variations in compilers you may have
a few problems also.  Modula-2 is a well designed and defined
language, but there is room for slight differences in
compilers and the way they interpret various constructs.


A PROGRAM WITH VARIABLES
______________________________________________________________

The program named INTVAR.MOD is our first program with some
variables in use.  This program begins in the usual way since
it has a module header and the import list.  Next we come to

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                             Chapter 3 - The Simple Data Types

a new reserved word, VAR.  This word is       ================
used to indicate to the compiler that we         INTVAR.MOD
wish to define one or more variables.  In     ================
Modula-2, there is a rule that says you
can use nothing until it is defined.  If we wish to use a
variable in the program, we must first define that it will
exist, and what kind of a variable it is, or to be more
specific, what type it is.  After that, it can be used in the
program to do what needs to be done.

Following the reserved word VAR in line 16, we have the
variable named Count defined.  The reserved word INTEGER
following the colon states that the variable named Count will
be of type INTEGER.  This means that it can store any whole
number between -32768 to 32767 on most microcomputers, and a
considerably larger range on larger computers.  Don't worry
too much about this yet, the next program will completely
define what an integer type variable is.  It is important to
recognize that after we have defined the variable named Count,
it still doesn't have a value stored in it, that will come
later.

Line 7 has two more variables defined, namely x, and y.  Once
the reserved word VAR is mentioned, as many variables as
desired can be defined.  They are also integer type variables
and do not have a value stored in them yet.  You can think of
the three variables as three empty boxes, each capable of
storing a number but with no number in them yet.  It would be
perfectly permissible to put all three variables on one line,
or to have separated them such that each was on a separate
line.  At this point, the program doesn't know that there is
any difference between them, because there isn't any.  The
fact that one will contain the sum of the other two has no
meaning yet, the comments are only for us, not the computer.

Note that Modula-2 gives you no way to initialize a variable
when it is declared.  This is permissible in many other
languages.


USING VARIABLES IN A PROGRAM
______________________________________________________________

Now we will examine the program itself.  Line 11 sets the
variable named x to the value 12, in effect putting the number
12 in the box mentioned earlier.  The sign := is the Modula-2
symbol for assignment.  It is most meaningful to read the
symbol "gets the value of" since it is not really stating a
mathematical equality but is saying in effect, "assign the
value of this to the variable at the left."  The entire line
can be read as "x gets the value of 12."  There is now a value
assigned to the variable x declared in the header.  The next
statement assigns the value of 13 to the variable named y.
Finally the value of the data stored in the variable named x

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                             Chapter 3 - The Simple Data Types

is added to the value of the data stored in the variable named
y, and the sum is stored in the variable named Count.  We have
therefore done our first calculation in Modula-2, but we will
do many more before this tutorial is completed.  The observant
student will notice that each statement is terminated with a
semicolon, a Modula-2 requirement.

The three variables are then displayed on the monitor with
appropriate prose to identify them in lines 17 through 25.
The only new statement here is the WriteInt procedure that
needs a little explanation.  This procedure is used to output
an integer type variable to the monitor or whatever device is
being used.  By definition, it contains two quantities within
the parentheses, the first being the variable name and the
second being the number of columns the output should fill.
If there are not enough columns specified to output the data,
more will be used so that no digits will be truncated.  If all
are not needed, leading blanks will be output.  If the
variable named x had the value of 1234 when we came to program
line 18, all four digits would be output in spite of the
request for three.  Since the variable x has the value of 12,
only two columns will be used and one leading blank will be
output.  In like manner, the value of the variable named y is
allotted 4 columns and the value of Count is to be output in
6 columns.

Lines 27 and 28 of the program assign new values to two of the
variables.  The variable x is assigned the value of FF
hexadecimal which is 255 decimal, and y is assigned the value
of 177 octal which is 127 decimal.  Note that the hexadecimal
number must have a leading digit.  In this case, a zero had
to be prepended.  This is only done as an illustration to you
of how it is done.  If you don't understand these two
numbering systems, simply ignore this until you have a need
for it.

Compile and run this program to see if it does what you expect
it to do.  The important thing to notice in this program is
the variable definition in the definition part of the module
and the variable assignment in the program part.  It should
be obvious, but it would be well to mention that the
definition part of the module extends from the module name to
the reserved word BEGIN and is where all definitions are put.
Likewise, the program part of the module includes all
statements from the begin statement to the end statement.


SIMPLE VARIABLE TYPES
______________________________________________________________

Modula-2 has several predefined data types that you can use
in your programs.  You also have the ability to define any
number of complex types built up from the simple types but we
will not discuss this until we get to chapter 6 of this

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                             Chapter 3 - The Simple Data Types

tutorial.  The simple types are INTEGER, CARDINAL, REAL,
BOOLEAN, and CHAR.  Each has its own purpose and its own
peculiarities and we will cover each type one at a time.

A few other types may be available with your particular
compiler, but they are not universal, so you must check your
documentation to see if they are available with your system.
The types LONGINT, LONGCARD, and LONGREAL are additional types
that represent long integer, long cardinal, and long real
types respectively.  In each case more storage is required,
but numbers covering a larger range can be stored in variables
of these types.  After you understand the basic types, these
new types will be easy for you to understand, so they will not
be illustrated in this tutorial.


THE SIMPLE VARIABLE - INTEGER
______________________________________________________________

Examine the program named INTMATH.MOD for      ===============
a few examples of integer math operations.       INTMATH.MOD
In the declaration part of the program         ===============
(the part prior to the BEGIN) we have 7
integer type variables defined for use in the program which
we will use to illustrate integer arithmetic in the Modula-2
programming language.

An integer variable, can store any whole number between -32768
and 32767 on most microcomputers.  An attempt to store any
other value in an integer type variable should produce an
error by your compiler but it may produce some other result.
Some compilers may store a -32769, which is one count too low,
as a 32767 which is at the top end of the range.  This is due
to the two's complement arithmetic that you don't need to
understand at this point.  It will be left to you to determine
what your compiler does in such a case.

Line 10 of this program is nothing new to you, it simply
assigns the variable named A the value of 9.  Line 11 adds 4
to the value stored in the variable A and the result, 13, is
stored in the variable named B.  Next, the values stored in
the variables named A and B are added together and the sum,
which is 13, is stored in the variable named IntSum.
Continuing in the same manner, the difference and the product
are calculated and stored.  When we come to integer division,
we are breaking new ground because the result is truncated to
the largest whole number resulting from the division.  Thus
13 DIV 9 results in 1 because the remainder is simply dropped.

The next construct, B MOD A results in the remainder of the
division, which is 4 in this case.  Note that the modulo (MOD)
operator can only be used with a positive denominator in
Modula-2.  Any attempt to use the modulo operator with a
negative denominator will result in a fatal run time error.

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                             Chapter 3 - The simple Data Types

You will find these operations very useful as you progress as
a Modula-2 programmer.

The intent of the next line is to illustrate that you can do
several math operations in a statement if you are careful to
put the parentheses in the proper places.  The rules about
operator precedence are similar to those for other programming
languages, and they are well defined, but I recommend that you
use lots of parentheses to remove all doubt as to what the
results will be.


THE INC AND DEC OPERATIONS
______________________________________________________________

The results of the operations are each displayed in 6 columns
and we move on to several new operations.  The first new
operation is the INC which is short for increment.  This
simply increments the variable contained within the
parentheses and if a second argument is given, the variable
is incremented by the value of that variable.  In like manner,
the DEC procedure decrements the variable in the parentheses
by one unless a second argument is given in which case the
variable is decremented by the value of that variable.

It may not be clear at this point, but the second variable
itself may be another variable name or even a composite of
several as long as it results in an integer type variable.
This is illustrated in the program in line 33.



THE MIN AND MAX OPERATIONS
______________________________________________________________

Finally, we come to the last two procedures in this program,
the MIN and the MAX.  These two function procedures are built
into the language and therefore do not need to be imported.
They are properly called function procedures because each
returns a value, but it is still proper to refer to them
simply as procedures.  These two procedures will return the
value of the smallest possible integer, -32768 and the largest
possible integer, 32767 for most microcomputers.  These are
the values returned for a 16 bit computer.  It is possible
that you are using a computer and compiler combination that
uses more than 16 bits.  If this is the case, MIN and MAX will
return larger numbers.

Compile and execute this program and observe the output.  If
your compiler results in errors, you may have to make some
changes in order to compile it.  Some of the more popular
Modula-2 compilers do not implement the MIN and MAX
procedures, so you may need to remove or comment out lines 35
and 36 of this program prior to compilation.  The min and max

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                             Chapter 3 - The Simple Data Types

procedures are relatively new additions to Modula-2 which
explains why they are not yet available with all compilers.


THE SIMPLE VARIABLE - CARDINAL
______________________________________________________________

Examine the file named CARDMATH.MOD for a     ================
few examples of cardinal mathematics and        CARDMATH.MOD
output.  In this file, 7 variables are        ================
defined as type CARDINAL and one more as
type INTEGER.  A cardinal variable can store any whole number
from 0 to 65535 in a 16 bit microcomputer, although the range
may be different if you are using a computer and compiler
combination that uses more bits.

The first few lines are the same as the last program so very
little needs to be said about them except for the subtraction
example.  In this case, the result of the subtraction would
be negative if it were carried out as in the last program so
A is subtracted from B.  It is an error to attempt to store
a negative number in a cardinal type variable.  For that
reason, a cardinal should not be used if there is any chance
that it will be required to go negative.  Programming
experience will be the best teacher when it comes to deciding
what variable types to use in each situation.

In this program the variables are once again displayed, but
now the procedure named WriteCard is used for output because
the variables to be output are of the cardinal type.

The next two statements indicate that integer and cardinal
variables are "assignment compatible", meaning that they can
be assigned to each other with the := operator.  They cannot
however, be mixed in calculations.  Constants in an expression
are assumed to be of the same type as the variables in the
expression and they must agree.  For that reason, the
expression in line 36 is invalid because (-112) is a negative
constant and therefore not cardinal.  In the prior line it is
permissible to subtract the positive number 112 from the value
of A as long as the result is still positive.  As an exercise,
change line 34 such that a number less than 112 is assigned
to the variable named A.  The program will compile without
error but when you run it, you should get a runtime error
because the cardinal assignment is out of range.  Notice that
the constant value of -112 is permissible for use as an
integer constant.

The remaining statements in the program are the same as the
last program so additional explanation is unneeded.  It would
be good to point out that in the case of cardinal, the MIN and
MAX procedures will return values of 0 and 65535 for most 16
bit implementations.  Computers using additional bits will
result in a much larger value for MAX.  Compile and run this

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                             Chapter 3 - The Simple Data Types

program remembering that it may be necessary to comment out
the MIN and MAX statements to get a successful compilation,
since they may not be available with your compiler.


HOW NEW IS YOUR COMPILER?
______________________________________________________________

Modula-2, as mentioned near the beginning of this chapter, is
a dynamic language that is changing as the base of experience
dictates weaknesses.  This is true of any good modern
programming language.  As originally defined, Modula-2 used
the cardinal type for most operations, assuming cardinal if
the type was not specifically stated and if the type could be
either integer or cardinal.  In his Fourth edition of
"Programming in Modula-2", Niklaus Wirth has changed this to
favor the integer in some situations.  The language will now
be more similar to a few other modern languages, many of which
do not have a cardinal representation.

This change makes this tutorial difficult to write, since all
compilers will not comply with this change for several years.
I will try to point out the places where the changes are
taking place, but I will not be able to find them all.  You
may be required to do a little searching in your compiler
documentation for some of the changes as they come up in the
example programs.



THE SIMPLE VARIABLE - REAL
______________________________________________________________

Examine the program named REALMATH.MOD for    ================
a demonstration of the use of the data          REALMATH.MOD
type REAL.  The definition part of this       ================
program is similar to the last with some
additions to the import list.  Your compiler may use different
names for some of the procedures here, so if you get a compile
error you will need to modify these.  We will study the import
(and export) list in detail later, so be patient.

Several real variables and one each of the integer and
cardinal types are defined for use in the program.  The real
type variable can contain numbers in a wide range and with
fractional parts included.  The exact range, and the accuracy
will vary widely depending on your implementation.  It will
be up to you to check your reference manual for the limits on
your computer and compiler.  A real type number is defined as
one with a decimal point, and in Modula-2, there must be at
least one digit prior to the decimal point, but none are
required following it.  The mathematics are the same as with
the other two except that the division symbol is the slash
(/).  There is no MOD for real type numbers because there is

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                             Chapter 3 - The Simple Data Types

theoretically no remainder, since a fractional part is
computed as part of the calculation.

The four results are displayed on the monitor with 12 columns
allowed for each result and two extra blanks displayed between
each number.  Unfortunately, we have no control over how many
digits will be displayed following the decimal point.  This
would be nice for outputting data in a financial model where
we would like to have two digits following the decimal point.
When we get to the advanced part of this tutorial, we will
write our own procedure for outputting real values in such a
way that we can call it from any program just like we call
these output procedures.


CONVERSION BETWEEN DATA TYPES
______________________________________________________________

Beginning in line 33, we assign the integer and cardinal
variables some values and convert the values to type real by
using the procedure named FLOAT.  We then convert the variable
Sum to integer and cardinal by use of the procedure named
TRUNC.  The fractional part, if any, will simply be thrown
away.  These procedures will be very useful in many of your

programs.

Lines 40 and 41 once again use the MIN and MAX functions to
return the value of the largest positive real number and the
smallest positive real number for your implementation.  Once
again, your compiler may not support these two functions and
they may have to be commented out in order to compile.  Be
sure to compile and execute this program.


THE REAL MATHEMATICS LIBRARY
______________________________________________________________

Besides the standard arithmetic               ================
operations, Modula-2 provides a library of      REALTRIG.MOD
standard geometric and trigonometric          ================
functions in the library module MathLib0.
These must be imported in order to use them as illustrated in
the example program REALTRIG.MOD which you should examine at
this time.

The program itself should be self explanatory with the
exception of lines 24 and 25 which illustrate the real and
entier functions which convert data between the real and
integer types.  The word entier is French for integer.  Note
that if the real value will not fit into the integer range of
values, the result is undefined by the definition of Modula-
2, but your compiler documentation should define the result
in this case.

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                             Chapter 3 - The Simple Data Types

THE SIMPLE VARIABLE - BOOLEAN
______________________________________________________________

Examine the file named BOOLMATH.MOD for an    ================
example of boolean variables and some           BOOLMATH.MOD
boolean operations.  A boolean variable       ================
can only have one of two possible values,
TRUE or FALSE.  The values TRUE and FALSE are standard
identifiers which are defined by the Modula-2 system and
available for your use.  These variables cannot be printed
directly but can be used to control other print statements to
print out a representation of their value.  We will see how
later.

We define 3 boolean variables and 3 integer variables and
assign values to the 3 integer variables in the program for
use in these illustrations.  In line 13 the boolean expression
"A = 22" is true, therefore the boolean variable named IsIt
is assigned the value TRUE.  The variable IsIt could be used
later in the program to make a decision, by a yet undefined
method, to do something or bypass it.  In like manner, the
next statement assigns IsIt the value FALSE because A is not
equal to 23.  The remainder of the allowed boolean expressions
are defined in the next few lines and are left for your
inspection and study.

Lines 20 and 21 illustrate forms of the "not equal" operator.
According to the latest definition of Modula-2, the <> is no
longer legal for use and must be changed to the # form.  You
may need to comment out line 21 to compile this program.

Beginning in line 25, composite boolean expressions are
illustrated.  As many boolean expressions as desired can be
combined with AND and OR operators.  If two or more boolean
expressions are combined with the AND, the result is true if
all expressions are true.  If two or more boolean expressions
are combined with the OR, the result is true if any of them
are true.  The NOT operator inverts the sense of what it
modifies, it turns a TRUE to FALSE and vice-versa.  Finally,
a couple of composite boolean expressions are given for
illustration of the amount of complexity that is allowed,
although there is no real limit as to how far you can go with
the complexity.  Good programming practice would dictate that
you keep it simple and understandable.

The ampersand (&) can be used in place of the AND operator,
and the tilde (~) can be used in place of the OR operator, but
the use of the words is considerably clearer.  Their use is
illustrated in lines 35 and 36.




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                             Chapter 3 - The Simple Data Types

TWO RULES FOR BOOLEAN EVALUATION
______________________________________________________________

First it is important that you use the same type of variables
within a boolean expression.  Real type variables can be
compared to other reals and integers to integers, but reals
cannot be compared to integers.  Cardinal and char types can
also be compared to their own types, but none of the four can
be compared directly to each other.

Secondly, Modula-2 uses a short circuit evaluation technique
for boolean evaluation.  Evaluation proceeds from left to
right and if it finds a result which will positively determine
the outcome, evaluation stops.  For example, if it is
evaluating a string of 5 comparisons all combined with an AND,
and it finds that the second term is false, evaluation stops
there.  Since all terms must be true for the result to be
true, it makes no difference what values the last three are,
the result will be false because of the second term.

Be sure to compile and execute this program even though it has
no output.  You should verify for your own information that
this program will compile and execute correctly with your
system.


THE SIMPLE VARIABLE - CHAR
______________________________________________________________

Examine the program named CHARDEMO.MOD for    ================
an illustration of use of the last simple       CHARDEMO.MOD
variable type, CHAR.  Text data is stored     ================
in a computer in a format utilizing the
char data type.  Although there are exceptions, such as when
text is stored in some form of a packed mode, this is nearly
always true.  This tutorial was written with a word processor
that uses a char type for text storage, and few word
processors use any other method.

Although there are many different ways to store text, only two
are used to any level of significance, EBCDIC and ASCII.  This
merely refers to the way the characters of the alphabet and
all other characters are represented in the computer.  The
ASCII standard defines that the value of 65 will be the letter
A, 66 will be the letter B, etc.  If everyone uses the same
standard, transfer of data from one computer to another is
greatly simplified.

The program named CHARDEMO.MOD has the usual header, imports
the procedure named Write for use in displaying the char type
data, then defines 4 char type variables for use in the
program.  An integer type variable is also defined.  In the
program itself, we begin in lines 11 and 12 by assigning two
of the variables some char data.  Since a char variable is

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                             Chapter 3 - THe Simple Data Types

capable of storing one letter, numeral, or special character,
each variable is assigned one letter.  The single or double
quotes are used as an indication to the compiler that you
intend for it to use the letter as a char type variable rather
than as another variable name.  Of course if you wanted to use
A as a variable name, you would have to define it in the
definition part of the module.


TWO SPECIAL CHAR PROCEDURES
______________________________________________________________

The next instruction gets the ordinal value of the letter A,
adds 2 to it, and assigns that value to the variable named
Index, which must be an integer (although it could have been
defined as a cardinal type variable).  Refer to the
documentation that came with your computer and you will find
an ASCII table that will define the letter A as 65.  Finally,
the char type variable Dog3 is assigned the character value
of Index.  Your ASCII table should define 67 as the letter C.
It is important to understand that the char variable Dog3
contains the character representation of the letter C, and the
integer variable Index contains the numerical value of the
ASCII representation of the letter C.  It would be perfectly
alright to use the variable Index for any desired numerical
calculations, but not to display the letter C.  On the other
hand, it would be alright to use the variable Dog3 to display
the letter C on the monitor but it could not be used for any
calculations.  The purpose therefore, of the two procedures
named ORD and CHR, is to translate from one type to the other.

The variable Cat4 is assigned the double quote by enclosing
it in the single quotes, and the characters are output in a
funny order to spell "CAT".  The variable Char1 is assigned
the value of S, and the word is completed resulting in the
full word "CATS" on the monitor after the program is compiled
and run.  If this were the only way to use the char type
variable, it would be very tedious and frustrating, but there
are other methods to use the char type that are far more
useful as you will see later in this tutorial.

Next, an additional means of assigning a char type variable
is given.  By assigning the char variable the value 65C, it
is the same as writing CHR(65), resulting in the  variable
having the internal value A.  A number less than 256 followed
by a C is defined by Modula-2 as a char type constant.

Finally, the variable Char1 is assigned the letter a and it
is converted to upper case A with the procedure named CAP.
This procedure will convert the argument to its upper case
equivalent if it is a lower case letter.  If its argument is
an upper case letter or any other character, it will do
nothing to it.  Be sure to compile and execute CHARDEMO.MOD
and observe the output.

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                             Chapter 3 - The Simple Data Types

One final point should be made about the char type variable.
There are no arithmetic operations that can be done on a char
type variable.  To increment a char type variable for example,
it must be converted to a numerical type, incremented, then
converted back to char.  Note that the actual increment is
performed on the numerical type, not the char type.


USING THE TRANSFER PROCEDURES
______________________________________________________________

Examine the file named TRANSFER.MOD for       ================
several examples of transferring data           TRANSFER.MOD
between the various simple data types.        ================
The transfer functions given here may not
seem too important at this time, but some time spent here will
help to reduce the frustration later when you get seemingly
wrong errors that say you are using incompatible types in a
statement.  All of the program will not be discussed, only
those statements that use some of the more unusual
capabilities of Modula-2.

In line 13, the calculations are done in integer format, but
due to the assignment compatibility of integer and cardinal,
the result is converted to cardinal across the assignment
operator.  In lines 14 and 15, the integer type Int1 is
converted to cardinal and the mathematics are completed in the
cardinal type.  This is an example of type coercion, which
will be explained in a couple of paragraphs.  Line 16 is an
illustration of mixed mathematics using the transfer procedure
INTEGER.  Line 20 is the first example of nested transfer
procedures which must be done because FLOAT can only be used
with cardinal for an argument.  (Keep in mind that Modula-2
is changing such that integer is the preferred type, and some
of this may change.)

The expression in line 22 is an error because the procedure
named TRUNC results in a cardinal which cannot be added to an
integer type variable.  Either of the next two lines fix the
problem by making the addition type-compatible then making use
of the assignment compatibility between integer and cardinal
for line number 23.  The same error occurs in line 26 and is
fixed the same way in either of the next two lines.  Once
again, in line 31, the incompatible type error occurs and is
fixed in either of two ways in the next two lines.

Lines 35 and 36 illustrate converting char data to first
cardinal then real which requires nested transfer procedure
calls.  The last line of the program is a nest of procedures
which converts a character from char to cardinal, then to
real, back to cardinal, and finally back to the original char
variable.  It does nothing except act as a good illustration
to you of what can be done.

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                             Chapter 3 - The Simple Data Types

TYPE COERCION OR TYPE CONVERSION
______________________________________________________________

All examples in this example program use type conversion
except for the INTEGER and CARDINAL conversions, which are
actually type coercions.  A type conversion is a call to a
function which actually modifies the bit pattern to conform
to the new type, whereas a type transformation, also called
a type coercion, simply copies the bit pattern from one type
to the other with no regard for the meaning of the bits.
Check your compiler documentation for a complete list of type
conversions.  The definition of Modula-2 requires that CHR,
FLOAT, ORD, TRUNC, and VAL be available.

A type transformation requires that the two types involved use
the same amount of storage.  This implies that you must have
some knowledge of the machine representation of the types.
The only type transformations you should make at this point
are between integer and cardinal types, since it would be
difficult for a compiler writer to use a different bit pattern
for each of these types.  More will be said about this later.
Until then, you should use type transformations cautiously,
if at all.

Conversion between types is very important.  You will use
these techniques often so it is important to know how they
work.  A very simple yet helpful memory aid is to remember
that any simple type can be converted to cardinal and cardinal
can be converted to any type.  Most other conversions require
two steps to get from one to the other.  Remember that the
latest update to Modula-2 is changing this.  Don't worry about
this change too much, since you may not even notice the change
as you program.  Compiler writers will try to keep updates
compatible with older versions and will inform you of any
changes.

Chapter 14 will readdress this topic with even more extensive
type transfer procedures.


PROGRAMMING EXERCISES
______________________________________________________________

1.   Write a program in which you define, using the char type
     variable, the letters "a" and "z", and the numbers "0"
     and "9".  Convert them to cardinal, and display the four
     characters and their ASCII (numerical) values.

2.   Write a program that you can easily modify to experiment
     with conversions between the various types that result
     in incorrect conversions to see the results on your
     compiler.  For example, convert a -1 as an integer to a
     cardinal.
                                                          3-13