Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!usc!apple!netcom!ergo
From: ergo@netcom.UUCP (Isaac Rabinovitch)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: more on TRUE and FALSE (sorry) with JOKES
Message-ID: <13291@netcom.UUCP>
Date: 17 Sep 90 01:46:43 GMT
References: <9@christmas.UUCP>
Reply-To: ergo@netcom.uucp
Organization: UESPA
Lines: 37

In <9@christmas.UUCP> rtm@christmas.UUCP (Richard Minner) writes:


>  The primary purpose of the DATA statement is to give names to
>  constants; instead of referring to pi as 3.141592653589793 at every
>  appearance, the variable PI can be given that value with a DATA
>  statement and used instead of the longer form of the constant.  This
>  also simplifies modifying the program, should the value of pi change.
>		-- FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers

That reminds me of something I spotted shortly after ATT started
getting commercial with Unix.  Apparently they hired a lot of English
majors to clean up the man pages.  One of them spotted a reference to
"atomic" transactions (meaning an IPC transaction that couldn't be
borken down further); apparently s/he said, "No, that can't be right,"
and changed it to "automatic".  

>(And the `what about novice programmers' argument is specious;
>a novice programmer might do anything.  Besides, I'd bet a novice
>would be at least as likely to screw up code that uses `flag = 1'
>and `return 1'.)

Who was it that said, "No system is foolproof -- fools are extremely
clever people"?
-- 

ergo@netcom.uucp			Isaac Rabinovitch
{apple,amdahl,claris}!netcom!ergo	Silicon Valley, CA

Collins's Law:
	If you can't make a mistake, you can't make anything.

Corollaries ("Rabinovitch's Rules of Sane Dialogue"):
	1. Everybody who matters is stupid now and then.
	2. If I'm being stupid, that's my problem.
	3. If my being stupid makes you stupid, that's your problem.
	4. If you think you're never stupid, boy are you stupid!