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authorlaw <law@138bc75d-0d04-0410-961f-82ee72b054a4>1999-10-28 11:39:31 +0000
committerlaw <law@138bc75d-0d04-0410-961f-82ee72b054a4>1999-10-28 11:39:31 +0000
commit490fa27b1c000652f10b797091747d21c6bb9337 (patch)
treeb431f8f8e76df45e15f2340aa37c59793829a2e2 /gcc/tree.def
parent75da12e2bab73442d6b85594f8f64419d640ef03 (diff)
downloadgcc-490fa27b1c000652f10b797091747d21c6bb9337.tar.gz
* tree.def (PLACEHOLDER_EXPR): Update comments.
git-svn-id: svn+ssh://gcc.gnu.org/svn/gcc/trunk@30241 138bc75d-0d04-0410-961f-82ee72b054a4
Diffstat (limited to 'gcc/tree.def')
-rw-r--r--gcc/tree.def69
1 files changed, 39 insertions, 30 deletions
diff --git a/gcc/tree.def b/gcc/tree.def
index af50d7bc2ae..9ccc3c579df 100644
--- a/gcc/tree.def
+++ b/gcc/tree.def
@@ -490,39 +490,48 @@ DEFTREECODE (WITH_CLEANUP_EXPR, "with_cleanup_expr", 'e', 3)
DEFTREECODE (CLEANUP_POINT_EXPR, "cleanup_point_expr", 'e', 1)
/* The following two codes are used in languages that have types where
- the position and/or sizes of fields vary from object to object of the
- same type, i.e., where some other field in the object contains a value
- that is used in the computation of another field's offset or size.
-
- For example, a record type with a discriminant in Ada is such a type.
- This mechanism is also used to create "fat pointers" for unconstrained
- array types in Ada; the fat pointer is a structure one of whose fields is
- a pointer to the actual array type and the other field is a pointer to a
- template, which is a structure containing the bounds of the array. The
- bounds in the type pointed to by the first field in the fat pointer refer
- to the values in the template.
-
- These "self-references" are doing using a PLACEHOLDER_EXPR. This is a
- node that will later be replaced with the object being referenced. Its type
- is that of the object and selects which object to use from a chain of
- references (see below).
-
- When we wish to evaluate a size or offset, we check it is contains a
- placeholder. If it does, we construct a WITH_RECORD_EXPR that contains
- both the expression we wish to evaluate and an expression within which the
- object may be found. The latter expression is the object itself in
- the simple case of an Ada record with discriminant, but it can be the
- array in the case of an unconstrained array.
-
- In the latter case, we need the fat pointer, because the bounds of the
- array can only be accessed from it. However, we rely here on the fact that
- the expression for the array contains the dereference of the fat pointer
- that obtained the array pointer.
+ some field in an object of the type contains a value that is used in
+ the computation of another field's offset or size and/or the size of
+ the type. The positions and/or sizes of fields can vary from object
+ to object of the same type.
+
+ Record types with discriminants in Ada or schema types in Pascal are
+ examples of such types. This mechanism is also used to create "fat
+ pointers" for unconstrained array types in Ada; the fat pointer is a
+ structure one of whose fields is a pointer to the actual array type
+ and the other field is a pointer to a template, which is a structure
+ containing the bounds of the array. The bounds in the type pointed
+ to by the first field in the fat pointer refer to the values in the
+ template.
+
+ When you wish to construct such a type you need "self-references"
+ that allow you to reference the object having this type from the
+ TYPE node, i.e. without having a variable instantiating this type.
+
+ Such a "self-references" is done using a PLACEHOLDER_EXPR. This is
+ a node that will later be replaced with the object being referenced.
+ Its type is that of the object and selects which object to use from
+ a chain of references (see below). No other slots are used in the
+ PLACEHOLDER_EXPR.
+
+ For example, if your type FOO is a RECORD_TYPE with a field BAR,
+ and you need the value of <variable>.BAR to calculate TYPE_SIZE
+ (FOO), just substitute <variable> above with a PLACEHOLDER_EXPR
+ what contains both the expression we wish to
+ evaluate and an expression within which the object may be found.
+ The latter expression is the object itself in the simple case of an
+ Ada record with discriminant, but it can be the array in the case of
+ an unconstrained array.
+
+ In the latter case, we need the fat pointer, because the bounds of
+ the array can only be accessed from it. However, we rely here on the
+ fact that the expression for the array contains the dereference of
+ the fat pointer that obtained the array pointer.
Accordingly, when looking for the object to substitute in place of
a PLACEHOLDER_EXPR, we look down the first operand of the expression
- passed as the second operand to WITH_RECORD_EXPR until we find something
- of the desired type or reach a constant. */
+ passed as the second operand to WITH_RECORD_EXPR until we find
+ something of the desired type or reach a constant. */
/* Denotes a record to later be supplied with a WITH_RECORD_EXPR when
evaluating this expression. The type of this expression is used to