bug-gnu-utils
[Top][All Lists]
Advanced

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

gawk manual 'function' discussion improvements


From: Dan Jacobson
Subject: gawk manual 'function' discussion improvements
Date: 09 Jun 2001 22:55:14 +0800
User-agent: Gnus/5.0808 (Gnus v5.8.8) Emacs/20.7

In the manual, in addition to
---------
   Definitions of functions can appear anywhere between the rules of an
`awk' program.  Thus, the general form of an `awk' program is extended
to include sequences of rules _and_ user-defined function definitions.
There is no need in `awk' to put the definition of a function before
all uses of the function.  This is because `awk' reads the entire
program before starting to execute any of it.
--------
I think it should mention: "and you should forget about putting your
functions in the BEGIN{} statement, where you probably thought they
should go, lest you get cryptic error messages, eg.
awk: cmd. line:1: BEGIN{     func foo() { a = sqrt($1) ; print a }}
awk: cmd. line:1:            ^ parse error
nor shall you put functions within any other {} pair, no matter how
shallow the depth of nesting."

Yes, do please mention these common foibles.

By the way, there is an info node
* Function Caveats::            Things to watch out for.
But when we get there, it is entitled
Calling User-defined Functions
which is too far for comfort.

By the way, I figured if I programmed really good, I could use --lint
and get no messages.  However no matter if you use ** and ^, you are
still going to get messages.  OK, I suppose I should add some of the
other Command Line Options...

By the way, this node is oddly named in light of Linux on PCs:
* PC Installation::             Installing and Compiling `gawk' on MS-DOS
                                and OS/2

By the way, people looking for the word "debug" don't find much in the
manual.  Perhaps add an Info page "Debugging Gawk Programs": can one
use gdb, etc., if not is the only way just to add lots of print
statements, etc.
-- 
http://www.geocities.com/jidanni Tel886-4-25854780 e-mail:restore .com.



reply via email to

[Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread]