Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!umich!samsung!usc!wuarchive!texbell!ficc!peter From: peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc Subject: Re: Lessons from Algol (Was: JLG's flogging of horses) Message-ID: Date: 3 May 90 13:20:29 GMT References: <1990Apr19.180903.27750@maths.nott.ac.uk> <4277@tukki.jyu.fi> <1990Apr27.171252.9503@maths.nott.ac.uk> <4403@tukki.jyu.fi> Reply-To: peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) Organization: Xenix Support, FICC Lines: 26 > (Of course, if one really wants adequate I/O facilities, one must look at > Cobol, PL/1, or Fortran.) Fortran? Adequate I/O facilities? Well, I must admit that Fortran I/O has lots of *features*, but how do you do: printf("The answer is %d, not %d\n", ans, resp); in Fortran? The best I can come up with on the top of my head is something like: WRITE (BUFFER,100) PRINTLENGTH(ANS),PRINTLENGTH(RESP) 100 FORMAT('(''The answer is '',',I1,'I,'',not '',',I1,'I'')') WRITE (5,BUFFER) ANS,RESP One time I actually went to the trouble of implementing printf in Fortran to make free-form output easier for one application. > I agree that the ability to define pointers to functions is an advantage > of C over Pascal and Ada. Otherwise C's type structure is inferior, > even disregarding the counterintuitive syntax of type definitions. What counterintuitive syntax? Declare them as you use them. The counterintuitive part comes from the fact that indirection is prefix rather than postfix. If you want to slam C for something, at least slam the right thing! -- _--_|\ `-_-' Peter da Silva. +1 713 274 5180. / \ 'U` Have you hugged your wolf today? \_.--._/ Disclaimer: commercial solicitation by email to this address v is acceptable.