numeric bounds on enumerated types should be based on enumerated string table limits

[Jeff Hill]

In GDD's conversion matrix, if a numeric type source
is being converted to a numeric type detination and
the destination has a enumerated string table then
the limits for the destination should be based on the
enumerated string table, but currently the limits are
based only on the what is appropriate for the destination's
primitive type.

Original Mantis Bug: mantis-110
    http://www.aps.anl.gov/epics/mantis/view_bug_page.php?f_id=110

[Jeff Hill (johill-lanl)]

Looking at this more detail, I see that GDD does absolutely no range checking whatsoever when converting between numeric types. Therefore, this problem is a known defect, but there are many known problems of this type in GDD.

[Andrew Johnson (anj)]

Wouldn't this prevent the passing of extra-enum values, which are currently supported and supplied by the database?

The mbbi record type sets VAL to 65535 if it can't find a match for RVAL in the ??VL fields, and if none of the ??VL or ??ST fields are set it copies RVAL directly into VAL. I know that Dirk Zimoch relies on this behavior.