| Abstract: | Parametric types offer an attractive solution to the problems of dealing with arrays in Pascal. These problems arise from the use of strong, static type checking, especially of array-type procedure arguments. Parametric types provide solutions both for the array procedure argument problem and allow the consistent inclusion of arrays with dynamic bounds. A parametric type mechanism is proposed and design issues are discussed. The inclusion of parametric types has major effects on the implementation of a language like Pascal. The implementation issues and implementation versus design tradeoffs are examined. The implementation strategy used can be extended to accommodate the standard and generic types in Ada. |
