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Re: Adding UNION/MAP -- Feedback and tips pls!
On Mar 4 2013, Russell Brennan wrote:
There are good reasons for Fortran not standardising unions and going
for CLASS(*) - unchecked unions are incompatible with strong typing.
My vague recollection is that DEC UNION is unchecked, and it certainly
allows the preservation of overlaid data, which is equally horrible.
Forgive my ignorance, what is an unchecked union? Also, what do you
mean by preservation of overlaid data?
One where you can assign one member of the union and read another.
Er, have you seen the specification of DEC UNION? I suggest getting
hold of a copy before implementing it! It's better to read it than
for me to play Chinese whispers.
Unless people start to use it for new code :-(
I feel that the extension is obscure enough that people who don't
already use it would not choose to pick it up, unless they really
needed to. In that case, it would probably be a boon to them!
I disagree. It's a loathesome feature from the point of view of software
engineering. I want it rejected with maximum prejudice, even if other
more civilised GNU extensions are enabled.
Regards,
Nick Maclaren.