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InstFormals

Description

The InstFormals property is used to further specify a component or a connector definition in UniCon. This property is used to define UniCon string variables whose scope is the entire component or connector definition. The names of the variables must be unique among all specifications of InstFormals properties in a single property list.

The string variables that are defined with the InstFormals property have no use in a UniCon definition to date. In the future, UniCon may provide a means for obtaining the string values and semantics for using them.

Property Lists

The InstFormals property can legally be specified in the property list in the following
UniCon language elements:

<interface>
<protocol>

Value Syntax

The syntax of the value part of the InstFormals property is a comma-separated list of <parameter>s enclosed in parentheses. A <parameter> consists of an
<identifier>, followed by a `=', followed by a <complex string> or the language keyword NODEFAULT. A <complex string> is a simple "string" or a sequence of "string"s concatenated by the `&' character.

Required Rule

Optional

There is no default value for the InstFormals property.

Merge Rule

MERGE

More than one specification of the InstFormals property in a single property list is treated as a single specification with the union of all values in all of the specifications.

Semantic Checks

Each variable name (i.e., <identifier>) in the value of the InstFormals property must be unique.

Example

The following is an example of a specification of an InstFormals property. It is embedded in the interface of a Module component:

  INTERFACE IS
    TYPE Module
    INSTFORMALS (parameter1 = "my string",
         parameter2 = "this string" &
          " is broken over a line",         
         parameter3 = NODEFAULT)
    PLAYER timeget IS RoutineCall
      SIGNATURE ("new_type"; "void")
    END timeget
    PLAYER timeshow IS RoutineCall
      SIGNATURE (; "void")
    END timeshow
  END INTERFACE