Contributor: BILL ZECH { TEST PROGRAM AT END !! } { Links Unit - Turbo Pascal 5.5 Patterned after the list processing facility in Simula class SIMSET. Simula fans will note the same naming conventions as Simula-67. Written by Bill Zech @CIS:[73547,1034]), May 16, 1989. The Links unit defines objects and methods useful for implementing list (set) membership in your own objects. Any object which inherits object will acquire the attributes needed to maintain that object in a doubly-linked list. Because the Linkage object only has one set of forward and backward pointers, a given object may belong to only one list at any given moment. This is sufficient for many purposes. For example, a task control block might belong in either a ready list, a suspended list, or a swapped list, but all are mutually exclusive. A list is defined as a head node and zero or more objects linked to the head node. A head node with no other members is an empty list. Procedures and functions are provided to add members to the end of the list, insert new members in position relative to an existing member, determine the first member, last member, size (cardinality) of the list, and to remove members from the list. Because your object inherits all these attributes, your program need not concern itself with allocating or maintaining pointers or other stuff. All the actual linkage mechanisms will be transparent to your object. *Note* The following discussion assumes you have defined your objects as static variables instead of pointers to objects. For most programs, dynamic objects manipulated with pointers will be more useful. Some methods require pointers as arguments. Example program TLIST.PAS uses pointer type variables. Define your object as required, inheriting object Link: type myObjType = object(Link) xxx.....xxxx end; To establish a new list, declare a variable for the head node as a type Head: var Queue1 :Head; Queue2 :Head; Define your object variables: var X : myObjType; Y : myObjType; Z : myObjType; P :^myObjType; Make sure the objects have been Init'ed as required for data initialization, VMT setup, etc. Queue1.Init; Queue2.Init; X.Init; Y.Init; Z.Init; You can add your objects to a list with: (Note the use of the @ operator to make QueueX a pointer to the object.) begin X.Into(@Queue1); Y.Into(@Queue2); You can insert at a specific place with or : Z.Precede(@Y); Z.Follow(@Y); Remove an object with : Y.Out; Then add it to another list: Y.Into(@Queue1); Note that , and all have a built-in call to Out, so to move an object from one list to another can be had with a single operation: Z.Into(@Queue1); You can determine the first and last elements with and : (Note the functions return pointers to objects.) P := Queue1.First; P := Queue1.Last; The succcessor or predecessor of a given member can be found with fucntions and : P := X.Pred; P := Y.Suc; P := P^.Suc; The number of elements in a list is found with : N := Queue1.Cardinal; returns TRUE is the list has no members: if Queue1.Empty then ... You can remove all members from a list with : Queue1.Clear; GENERAL NOTES: The TP 5.5 type compatibility rules allow a pointer to a descendant be assigned to an ancestor pointer, but not vice-versa. So although it is perfectly legal to assign a pointer to type myObjType to a pointer to type Linkage, it won't let us do it the opposite. We would like to be able to assign returned values from Suc, Pred, First, and Last to pointers of type myObjType, and the least fussy way is to define these pointer types internal to this unit as untyped pointers. This works fine because all we are really doing is passing around pointers to Self, anyway. The only down-side to this I have noticed is you can't do: P^.Suc^.Pred because the returned pointer type cannot be dereferenced without a type cast. } unit Links; interface type pLinkage = ^Linkage; pLink = ^Link; pHead = ^Head; Linkage = object prede :pLinkage; succ :pLinkage; function Suc :pointer; function Pred :pointer; constructor Init; end; Link = object(Linkage) procedure Out; procedure Into(s :pHead); procedure Follow (x :pLinkage); procedure Precede(x :pLinkage); end; Head = object(Linkage) function First :pointer; function Last :pointer; function Empty :boolean; function Cardinal :integer; procedure Clear; constructor Init; end; implementation constructor Linkage.Init; begin succ := NIL; prede := NIL; end; function Linkage.Suc :pointer; begin if TypeOf(succ^) = TypeOf(Head) then Suc := NIL else Suc := succ; end; function Linkage.Pred :pointer; begin if TypeOf(prede^) = TypeOf(Head) then Pred := NIL else Pred := prede; end; procedure Link.Out; begin if succ <> NIL then begin succ^.prede := prede; prede^.succ := succ; succ := NIL; prede := NIL; end; end; procedure Link.Follow(x :pLinkage); begin Out; if x <> NIL then begin if x^.succ <> NIL then begin prede := x; succ := x^.succ; x^.succ := @Self; succ^.prede := @Self; end; end; end; procedure Link.Precede(x :pLinkage); begin Out; if x <> NIL then begin if x^.succ <> NIL then begin succ := x; prede := x^.prede; x^.prede := @Self; prede^.succ := @Self; end; end; end; procedure Link.Into(s :pHead); begin Out; if s <> NIL then begin succ := s; prede := s^.prede; s^.prede := @Self; prede^.succ := @Self; end; end; function Head.First :pointer; begin First := suc; end; function Head.Last :pointer; begin Last := Pred; end; function Head.Empty :boolean; begin Empty := succ = prede; end; function Head.Cardinal :integer; var i :integer; p :pLinkage; begin i := 0; p := succ; while p <> @Self do begin i := i + 1; p := p^.succ; end; Cardinal := i; end; procedure Head.Clear; var x : pLink; begin x := First; while x <> NIL do begin x^.Out; x := First; end; end; constructor Head.Init; begin succ := @Self; prede := @Self; end; end. { ----------------------- TEST PROGRAM ----------- } program tlist; uses Links; type NameType = string[10]; person = object(link) name :NameType; constructor init(nameArg :NameType); end; Pperson = ^person; constructor person.init(nameArg :NameType); begin name := nameArg; link.init; end; var queue : Phead; man : Pperson; man2 : Pperson; n : integer; tf : boolean; begin new(queue,Init); tf := queue^.Empty; new(man,Init('Bill')); man^.Into(queue); new(man,Init('Tom')); man^.Into(queue); new(man,Init('Jerry')); man^.Into(queue); man := queue^.First; writeln('First man in queue is ',man^.name); man := queue^.Last; writeln('Last man in queue is ',man^.name); n := queue^.Cardinal; writeln('Length of queue is ',n); if not queue^.Empty then writeln('EMPTY reports queue NOT empty'); new(man2,Init('Hugo')); man2^.Precede(man); new(man2,Init('Alfonso')); man2^.Follow(man); { should now be: Bill Tom Hugo Jerry Alfonso } writeln('After PRECEDE and FOLLOW calls, list should be:'); writeln(' {Bill, Tom, Hugo, Jerry, Alfonso}'); writeln('Actual list is:'); man := queue^.First; while man <> NIL do begin write(man^.name,' '); man := man^.Suc; end; writeln; man := queue^.Last; writeln('The same list backwards is:'); while man <> NIL do begin write(man^.name,' '); man := man^.Pred; end; writeln; n := queue^.Cardinal; writeln('Queue size should be 5 now, is: ', n); queue^.Clear; writeln('After clear operation,'); n := queue^.Cardinal; writeln(' Queue size is ',n); tf := queue^.Empty; if tf then writeln(' and EMTPY reports queue is empty.'); writeln; writeln('Done with test.'); end.