RE: Glossary?

Stéphane Payrard wrote:
> On (14/11/02 14:29), Garrett Goebel wrote:
> > 
> > It is interesting that no one has yet taken the time to 
> > start defining the terms we're using.
> > 
> > For instance what is a literal?
> > 
> > Would everyone agree with the following definition?
> > 
> > A literal is the represention of a constant value. It is 
> > important not to confuse the representation with the value.
> > To illustrate this b1000001, 0101, 0x41, and 64:11 are all
> > literal numeric integer representations of the value more
> > commonly represented in decimal notation as 65.
> 
> But when we say literal array, do we talk about the representation
> or the value?

The representation of a fixed value.

If a literal is the representation of a constant value, then a literal array
is yet another representation of a constant value. For example, the C string
literal 'ABCD' is a literal array of bytes equivalent to the little-endian
integer literal 0x44434241. I've seen a lanugage with a literal array
notation like #[65,66,67,68] that would be equivalent... but I'm not aware
of any C syntax to do something similar.

However, I should add that it seems as often as not that when other people
talk of literal arrays, they talk about arrays of literals, and not arrays
representing fixed values.

--
Garrett Goebel
IS Development Specialist

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