C question

[John Ruschmeyer]

>From: kjm at ut-ngp.UUCP (Ken Montgomery)
>Message-ID: <1617 at ut-ngp.UUCP>
>
>From: lspirkov at udenva.UUCP (Goldilocks)
>>In article <> jack at boring.UUCP (Jack Jansen) writes:
>>>
>>>procedure p(var i:integer):integer;
>              ^^^
>>>begin
>>>    p := i;
>>>    i := i+1;
>>>end (* p *);
>>>
>>
>>you obviously don't know your pascal!  a function returns
>>something.  a procedure doesn't.
>>
>>                                        Goldi
>
>The 'var' keyword has the effect that the value of 'i' is assigned
>to the corresponding actual parameter in the calling routine at the
>termination of the called routine.

What goldi was referring to was this:

>procedure p(var i:integer):integer;
                           ^^^^^^^^

The part I have highlighted is used in a FUNCTION declaration to declare
the type of the value returned. The type of values returned by a PROCEDURE
is declared by the 'var' as you pointed out.

The correct declaration is:

	procedure p(var i:integer);

I don't have the original article handy, but it almost looks like someone
was trying to perform the illegal:

	function p(var i:integer):integer;

which would be an attempt at declaring a function which returns two values.
I pray that somewhere there isn't a compiler which would accept that. 
(Ooh, ick!)


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