Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!crdgw1!underdog!shane
From: shane@underdog.crd.ge.com (Randall H. Shane)
Newsgroups: alt.religion.computers
Subject: Re: Shoulds arrays start at zero or one?
Message-ID: <4822@crdgw1.crd.ge.com>
Date: 16 Jan 90 21:24:44 GMT
References: <252@usblues.UUCP> <1990Jan16.173034.25686@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>
Sender: news@crdgw1.crd.ge.com
Reply-To: shane@underdog.crd.ge.com (Randall H. Shane)
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Organization: GE Corporate R&D Center
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In article <1990Jan16.173034.25686@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> gl8f@astsun.astro.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl) writes:
] In article <252@usblues.UUCP> tom@usblues.UUCP (Tom Markson) writes:
]  >Pascal does the pointer manipulations for you.  In pascal, if I wish to change
]  >a "val" parameter to a reference variable all I must do is add var to it's
]  >declaration.  In C, I must recode every single occurance of that variable in
]  >the func to a pointer. (from variable to *variable).  In short, C places the
]  >burden on the programmer.
] Of course, the performance implications of "var" are enormous and often
] not told to Pascal students. "I'm passing this 50k array into a procedure,
] and, oh, well I don't want to modify it, so I'd better not make it var."
] Then your stoopid Pascal compiler makes a local copy...

Of course, the performance implications of 'stoopid' compilers are
enormous, and often not told to USENET posters.  Stupid compilers
exist for most, if not all languages, and the mere existence of stupid
compilers is hardly a reason to slam a computer language.  Intelligent
Pascal compilers, while enforcing the semantics of var and non-var
parameters in the program text, for efficiency's sake pass large structures
such as arrays by reference in both cases.  This efficient implementation
is not a contradiction of the programmer's intent, let us note....

C has some advantages over Pascal, but the syntax and semantics of C's
parameter passing sure as hell isn't one of them.

] I should think most C programmers don't find *var to be much of a burden
] at all.

IMHO, it's one of the small irritations about C that add up over
time...  There are many advantages to a language that allows you to
fiddle around at the lowest levels, but having to worry about the
tiniest, most trivial details at every level is irritating.  The
conjunction of pointer manipulation primitives and var parameter
passig is one of the irritating details that should be hidden most of
the time.

-- Randall Shane [shane@disney.crd.ge.com]
"My daughter is being taught that there is no person greater than
Lenin.  I brought her here so that she could see a man greater than Lenin."   	
	-- Russian woman at a memorial service for Andrei Sakharov