Characters
Keywords: pame

Subsections

- Exercises

#
Characters

All the symbols you can see on a computer, and some you cannot see, are known as characters. The alphabet consists of the characters `A` to `Z` and `a` to `z`. The digits comprise the characters `0` to `9`. Every computer recognises a particular set of characters. The character set recognised by `a68toc` is ASCII (which stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange). The mode of a character is `CHAR` (read “car” because it is short for character). A character is denoted by placing it between quote characters. Thus the denotation of the lower-case a is `"a"`. Here are some character denotations:

       "a"  "A"  "3"  ";"  "\"  "'"  """"  " "

Note that quote characters are doubled in their denotations. The third denotation is `"3"`. This value has mode `CHAR`. The denotation `3` has mode `INT`: the two values are quite distinct, and one is not a synonym for the other. The last denotation is that of the space character.

Here are some identity declarations for values of mode `CHAR`:

       CHAR a = "A", zed = "z";  CHAR tilde = "~"

Note that the two sets of identity declarations are separated by a semicolon, but the declaration for `tilde` is not followed by a semicolon. This is because the semicolon `;` is not a terminator; it is an action. Identity declarations do not yield any value. An identity declaration is a phrase. Phrases are either identity declarations or units. When a phrase is elaborated, if it is a unit, it will yield a value. That is, after elaboration, a value will be available for further use if required. Again, this may not make much sense now, but it will become clearer as you learn the language.

Here is a piece of program with identity declarations for an `INT` and a `CHAR`:2.1

       INT ninety nine=99 , CHAR x = "X"

The compiler recognises 512 distinct values of mode `CHAR`, but most of them can only occur in denotations. The space is declared as `blank` in the standard prelude.

## Exercises

1.8
  Write the denotations for the full-stop, the comma and the digit `8` (not the integer 8). Ans
1.9
  Write a suitable identity declaration for the question mark. Ans