Re: Size of SET type

[Gaius Mulley]

Benjamin Kowarsch <trijezdci@gmail.com> writes:

> Hi Gaius,
>
> On Mon, 27 Mar 2023 at 05:17, Gaius Mulley wrote:
>
>  here is a further example using the <* bytealignment(0) *> attribute
>  (for non SET types):
>
>  TYPE
>      Small_Set_T = PACKEDSET OF [0..7] ;
>      bar = ARRAY [0..7] OF BOOLEAN <* bytealignment(0) *> ;
>
> Using language syntax should be reserved for features that have
> semantic impact, while pragmas should be used for features that merely
> influence the compilation process without changing the
> semantics. Controlling alignment does not alter the semantics, it is
> merely an optimisation. It should therefore always be done by pragma,
> not by language syntax.
>
> Very unfortunately, PACKEDSET is one of those things ISO M2 inherited
> from WG13, the sum of which then messed up the entire standard leading
> to a bloated and inconsistent design. It is thus understandable that
> you wanted to keep the feature around, just so as to satisfy the
> standard specification.
>
> However, it does introduce yet another inconsistency when the
> alignment pragma won't apply to SET types. It would be more consistent
> to simply allow the alignment pragma to also be used with SET types in
> effect becoming a PACKEDSET. Although this violates the principle that
> there should ideally be only one single syntax for every feature, one
> has to ask the question, which is worse: The
> inconsistency/non-orthogonality or the violation of the single-syntax
> principle?
>
> In my view, consistency and orthogonality is far more important and in
> order to preserve it, a violation of the single-syntax principle is
> the lesser evil in this particular case.

Hi Benjamin,

sure thanks for the analysis.  Yes ironically I originally implemented
bytealignment for all data types and later removed it for SETs - to
adopt the one way to achieve single syntax principle.  But I think you
are right and this should be changed in favour of orthogonality (the pim
argument is strong - in that it does not have PACKEDSET).  For what it
is worth I also dislike PACKEDSET and wish it were not part of the
language :-).

> Furthermore, when GM2 is used in PIM mode, there is no PACKEDSET type 
> constructor, but the pragma should still be available.
>
> I therefore encourage you to allow the alignment pragma to be used
> with the SET constructor in both PIM and ISO mode.

will do :-)

> I also encourage you to implement the pragma convention in our revised M2 
> specification:
>
> https://github.com/m2sf/m2bsk/wiki/Language-Specification-(12)-:-Pragma-Facilities

thanks it looks good - I will implement this

> Note this is a reduced pragma set for the bootstrap specification
> which lacks the alignment pragma. In the complete set, the alignment
> pragma symbol is ALIGN. For any implementation specific pragmas, there
> should be a compiler identifier preceding the pragma symbol, thus
>
> Common pragma:
>
> TYPE FooSet = SET OF [0..7] <*ALIGN=1*>;
>
> GM2 specific pragma:
>
> TYPE FooSet = SET OF [0..7] <*gm2.bytealignment(0)|WARN*>;
>
> The idea here is that a compiler can always identify whether any given pragma 
> is intended for it or not, and what to do if a pragma is found that is 
> specific to another compiler. This way, the facility becomes portable
> even for unknown pragmas, which is possible precisely because pragmas do not 
> change semantics, but only optimisations (in the widest sense).

regards,
Gaius