Ascii import, compiler errors and proposal for new type-system

["Asger K. Alstrup Nielsen" <alstrup diku dk>]

Hi!

I finally got the time to commit the stuff I did on ascii
import, and some other stuff.

Regarding ascii import:

It works now.  Unfortunately, the test_ascii_import file
does not compile with optimizations with egcs v1.0.3.
It enters what seems like an infinite loop.  I haven't
tried with egcs v1.1, but it looks like a sure compiler
bug to me.

It does however work without optimizations, and then you can try
it with

	examples/test_ascii_import < ascii-file.txt

where ascii-file.txt is any ascii file you want to test.
If you have one which performs real bad, please send a
copy to me, and I'll see what I can do to make it better.

Be aware that I have planned a few extra tricks, and that
will hopefully improve it even further.

--

I figured out a way to make the Microsoft Visual C++ 
compiler understand the correct for-scoping rules, and
thus started reverting the changes I made earlier to
work around the broken behaviour.
However, when I tried to compile the stuff, I was meet
by a complete failure in another area.  When the compiler 
is asked to be standard compliant, the STL does not work.

Sigh.  I tried with the SGI STL, but that failed too.
I'll try with STLPort and hopefully that will work.
If not, I'm afraid I have to revert to the stupid
for-scoping.

I know that compiler errors are a part of life, but when
two different compilers fail in one day, it's unfair. 
I give up for now, and will continue tomorrow when I
have some more confidence ;-)

--

Finally, I implemented a proposal for a new type/value
system.  I designed it such that the framework in Goose
will be able to handle other types than double.  The
scheleton for strings is set up, but not finished.
I imagine that we will add a "date" type as well, and
probably a "time" type, and also enumeration types.

Please have a look at the DataType.h and Value.h headers
and comment.  It's the first design iteration, so any
questions or comments are welcome.

As far as I am concerned, we could release goose v0.0.6,
disregarding the windows port has a few problems compiling.
However, if you do that, you might want to turn off optimizations
in the examples/ directory in order to compile the test_ascii_import
program out-of-the-box.

Greets,

Asger