RE: [sv-bc] "Assignment ... to a constant expression"

I agree that this is an issue that is due to merging the wording from two
standards together.  I think the intent is clear, and does not need
committee discussion on what the standard should say.  Can someone suggest
specific wording changes?  Based on that suggestion, we can decide if it is
just an editorial correction, or should go through the committee review and
approval chain.  


Stu
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Stuart Sutherland
stuart@sutherland-hdl.com
+1-503-692-0898

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-sv-bc@eda.org [mailto:owner-sv-bc@eda.org] On Behalf Of
> Bresticker, Shalom
> Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2008 10:56 PM
> To: Brad Pierce; sv-bc@eda.org
> Subject: RE: [sv-bc] "Assignment ... to a constant expression"
> 
> That was the original intent. That sentence comes from 1364-2001,
> 6.2.1:
> 
> "The variable declaration assignment is a special case of procedural
> assignment as it assigns a value to a variable. It allows an initial
> value to be placed in a variable in the same statement that declares
> the
> variable. The assignment shall be to a constant expression. The
> assignment does not have duration; instead, the variable holds the
> value
> until the next assignment to that variable. Variable declaration
> assignments to an array are not allowed. Variable declaration
> assignments are only allowed at the module level."
> 
> Note that in the BNF, originally when the variable declaration
> assignment was introduced in Verilog-2001, the RHS was
> constant_expression. In SV 3.1a, it was changed from
> constant_expression
> to expression, to allow expressions that constant_expression does not
> allow.
> 
> While the use of "to" here is misleading, as the assignment is to the
> variable, not to the RHS, the entire sentence is no longer correct. 6.7
> says,
> 
> "A variable can be declared with an initializer, for example: int i =
> 0;
> ..
> Initial values are not constrained to simple constants; they can
> include
> run-time expressions, including dynamic memory allocation. For example,
> a static class handle or a mailbox can be created and initialized by
> calling its new method (see 15.4.1), or static variables can be
> initialized to random values by calling the $urandom system task. This
> may require a special pre-initial pass at run time."
> 
> That is what happens when a single subject is described in several
> places. Besides correcting 10.5, the two sub-clauses should
> cross-reference each other. Even better would be to merge them.
> 
> As an LRM merge issue, I believe we can still work on this.
> 
> Thanks,
> Shalom
> 
> 
> > According to 10.5 of Draft 4 --
> >
> >   "The variable declaration assignment is a special case of
> > procedural assignment as it assigns a value to a variable. It
> > allows an initial value to be placed in a variable in the
> > same statement that declares the variable. The assignment
> > shall be to a constant expression."
> >
> > What does it mean to assign "to a constant expression"?  Is
> > this trying to say that in a variable_decl_assignment, if the
> > variable is static, then the right-hand side shall be a
> > constant expression?
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