[Gambas-user] Constant expressions

[bb]

On Tue, 2021-10-12 at 15:00 +0200, Benoît Minisini wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I have implemented in the compiler the ability to use "constant 
> expressions".
> 
> Constant expressions are integer expressions that are evaluated at 
> compile time, and that can be used in the following places:
> 
> - Constant declarations.
> 
> - Enumeration declarations.
> 
> - Embedded array declarations.
> 
> These expressions only support a subset of Gambas operators and 
> pre-defined constants.
> 
> Here is the list of what you can use inside a constant expression:
> 
> - Arithmetic operators: +, -, *, /, \, Div, %, Mod
> 
> - Logical operators: And, Or, Xor, Not
> 
> - Bitwise operators: Shl, Shr, Asl, Asr, Lsl, Lsr
> 
> - Size of a native numerical or date datatype: SizeOf()
> 
> - Native datatype constants : gb.Boolean, gb.Byte, gb.Short,
> gb.Integer,
>    gb.Long, gb.Single, gb.Float, gb.Date.
> 
> - Another integer constant.
> 
> WARNING! In the context of constant integer expressions, The /
> operator 
> acts like the integer division operator \.
> 
> Note that the bitwise operators now can used like... operators, and
> must 
> be used that way in the context of constant integer expressions
> 
> Here are some examples:
> 
>    Public Const Alpha As Integer = 1
>    Public Const Beta As Integer = (Alpha * 2) + 1
>    Public Const Delta As Byte = Beta + Alpha
> 
>    Private Enum FirstFlag = 1 Shl 0, SecondFlag = 1 Shl 1,
>      ThirdFlag = 1 Shl 2
> 
>    Private SomeEmbeddedArray[Delta * SizeOf(gb.Short)] As String
> 
> The corresponding documentation is available in the wiki here:
> 
> https://gambaswiki.org/edit/lang/constexpr
> 
> Enjoy it!
> 
What! Are you some kind of mind-reader now?
I was looking for exactly that only a few days ago.
8-)

Does it work for Longs as well?
regards
bruce