"Hidden" parameters in Pcell

The problem is that the variables arg1 and arg2 are out of scope when the body of the pcell is evaluated. You might think that you could solve this with SKILL++ (which has lexical scoping), but pcDefinePCell is not supported in SKILL++ (it can call SKILL++ functions, but can't be used in SKILL++ - mainly because the pcell wouldn't be able to store information about the lexical environment in which it was called). One way is to store the arguments on the cellView somewhere (as properties say), but another might just be to do:

procedure(makeACell(arg1 arg2)
eval(`pcDefinePCell(
  ...
  ...
  w=,arg1*,arg2
) ;pcDefinePCell
) ; eval
) ; procedure

The quote before the pcDefinePCell is a backquote. This means that the code is not evaluated - but a list of the code - but rather than a normal quote, backquote allows selective evaluation. You precede the variable with a comma to selectively evaluate it.

To illustrate what I mean:

val1=20
val2=30
lst=`(a b ,val1 c ,val2)

then lst will contain (a b 20 c 30)

Regards,

Andrew.

Ok, thanks, this seems to work, with one exception.  If I use backquotes in a for loop, this doesn't seem to work.

 example:

 procedure(makeACell(arg1 arg2)
eval(`pcDefinePCell(
  ...
  ...
  w=,arg1*,arg2
for( n 1 ,arg1
do something
) ;for
) ;pcDefinePCell
) ; eval
) ; procedure

It looks like that he still needs the arg1 in the for loop.

 I tried something in the ciw, if I enter:

y=1

and then:

 '(x ,y z)

I still get:

(x y z)            I expected (x 1 z)

What's wrong here??

 The way you build your list is worng if you want y to be evaluated do it that way

list(y)

 In the example I want to build a list with x y z, where only y is evaluated.  This should be the way to do it (it's exactly the same example as in the cadence manual, only I have a different outcome as in the manual.)

In your first example, this code worked perfectly:

procedure(makeACell(arg1 arg2)
eval(`pcDefinePCell(
  list(ddGetObj("BBDlib") "mypcell" "layout")
  (
    (myp 1)
  )
  w=,arg1*,arg2
  for( n 1 ,arg1
    fprintf(stderr "w is %L, n is %L\n" w n)
  ) ;for
 ) ;pcDefinePCell
) ; eval
) ; procedure

It output this when the pcell evaluated:

makeACell(3 4)
Generating Pcell for 'mypcell layout'.
w is 12, n is 1
w is 12, n is 2
w is 12, n is 3

As for the second case, it's because you have the wrong quotation mark. It should be a backquote not a normal single quote. So ` not '

Check your pcell code in case you've used the wrong quote. Normal single quote prevents evaluation completely, whereas backquote allows selective evaluation when expressions are preceded by comma.

Andrew.