Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: A question of style
Message-ID: <1989Dec5.173032.28021@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <1989Nov23.170838.10376@phri.nyu.edu> <680014@hpmwjaa.HP.COM>
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 89 17:30:32 GMT

In article <680014@hpmwjaa.HP.COM> jeffa@hpmwtd.HP.COM (Jeff Aguilera) writes:
>>and experienced C programmers are likely to read the standard idiom
>>with greater facility than your proposed use of a comma operator for this.
>
>I hope an experienced programmer is capable of understanding both expressions.
>His mental algorithmic model should be independent of the implementation and
>its expression.  

Of course he would be capable of understanding both.  But *read* the words
you are replying to:  "with greater facility".  He will understand both,
but will find it easier, less distracting, and more conducive to productive
work to read the familiar idiom.  The objective is maximum clarity, not some
bare-minimum standard of legibility.
-- 
Mars can wait:  we've barely   |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
started exploring the Moon.    | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu