Why doesn't Pro*C support structures?

In article <1992Dec30.183813.29783_at_tigger.jvnc.net>, fogelinc_at_nmr1.Cyanamid.COM (Carl Fogelin) writes:
|> I hate to tell you this Steve, but PRO*C does not support the use of
|> structures.
|> It states on page 1-6 of the PRO*C Supplement (V1.3)
|>
|> You cannot declare a host variable of type struct. Nor can you
|> refer
|> to any of the following:
|>
|> - names declared in typedef statements
|> - symbolic constants named by the #define directive
|> - previously declared structs
|>
|> I know it stinks, especially since VARCHARs are structs, but that's
|> the way
|> it is. :-(
|>
|> Carl

Thanks Carl, and to others who Emailed a similar response.

Boy that really does stink! Acckkk Pbbttt!

Competitive products (e.g. INGRES) don't have any such constraints. Fetching into a structure seems to be the most natural approach for mapping relational sets of data into a 3GL. What I was really looking to do is to dynamically allocate an array of struct but I guess that's beyond hope.

Does anyone know if this constraint self-imposed or does Oracle hide behind the ANSI-SQL definition as the rational for this limitation?

Steve

-- 
    Disclaimer:	"Everyone is entitled to an opinion, 
		 the above is mine and not that of my employer."