FASMG: suprising behavior of 'definite' operator ?

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fabbel

Joined: 30 Oct 2012
Posts: 114

fabbel 12 Feb 2024, 15:31

Hi Tomasz,

Am a bit suprised by below behavior of definite operator... would u pls help clarify ?
.... below code displays 'DEFINITE'... looks pretty odd to me..
... would have expected the opposite considering local uninitialized variable ...

Code:

calminstruction test
        local _tmp

                check definite _tmp
                jyes @def

                display 'not DEFINITE'
                jump @end

        @def :
                display 'DEFINITE'

        @end:
                display 13
                display 10
end calminstruction

test

12 Feb 2024, 15:31

fabbel

Joined: 30 Oct 2012
Posts: 114

fabbel 12 Feb 2024, 15:37

... actually, looking back at the manual, I see it says

Quote:

A symbol made local is initally assigned a defined but unusable value.

.. so that would pbly explain it...
... but still, that really feels strange nonetheless...

12 Feb 2024, 15:37

Tomasz Grysztar

Joined: 16 Jun 2003
Posts: 8466
Location: Kraków, Poland

Tomasz Grysztar 12 Feb 2024, 16:31

Yes, it's a quirk of how locality is enforced without altering the existing fasmg's symbol recognition engine. The symbol needs to have a value to be "seen" by the ALM compiler, but it is given a value of type that is unusable by design (so for example TAKE command does not consider it a valid value). I was designing CALM on top of the existing rules and trying to make the best use of what I already had.

Also, be careful: once the symbol is given a symbolic value (a text from an argument, etc.), DEFINITE is going to look inside the value and check the status of a symbol with name embedded there, and not the "proxy" symbol itself.

12 Feb 2024, 16:31

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