[Coco] Expert C programmer wanted

[John R. Hogerhuis]

On Fri, 2005-02-11 at 16:01 -0500, KnudsenMJ at aol.com wrote:

> 
> Is Pascal like Basic09, in that functions can't return values?  If  not, then 
> you should be able to return a single value (a success/error code for  
> example).

Functions in Pascal must return a value, IIRC.

>  
> Otherwise, can you use the Basic09 trick (also handy in C), where you pass  
> the function the address of a structure ("type" in Basic09), an let the  
> assembler OS9 routine fill in the slots/fields of the structure/type with  multiple 
> return values?
>  
> Or maybe pass the address of one or more Pascal variables, into which the  
> OS9 assembler routine can store values?
>  
> Now, ISTR that Pascal didn't allow pointers or addresses (thus guaranteeing  
> that C would play the part of Mammals to Pascal's Dinosaurs).  But I'm  pretty 
> sure Pascal has structures (user-defined types as in Basic09), and when  one 
> is passed to a routine, it *probably* is passed by reference (address, or  
> pointer (shhhh)), so if the routine changes any fields/members of the structure,  
> those changes will be seen afterwards in the calling program.

Even standard pascal has pointers. And I think var parameters are
standard too (pass by reference).