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From: jcburt@ipsun.larc.nasa.gov (John Burton)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Re: C's sins of commission (was: (pssst...fortran?))
Message-ID: <1990Sep21.193403.20381@abcfd20.larc.nasa.gov>
Date: 21 Sep 90 19:34:03 GMT
References: <michels.653892230@menaik> <63722@lanl.gov>
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In article <63722@lanl.gov> jlg@lanl.gov (Jim Giles) writes:
>From article <michels.653892230@menaik>, by michels@cs.UAlberta.CA (Michael Michels):
>> [...]                                       Why should I be forced
>> to write my programs in a cryptic form just because someone else
>> has a different opinion.
>
>Hear, Hear!!  I like a programming language to allow me to say what I
>mean - not to have to convert my algorithm into something cryptic.
>However, C forces me to encrypt my programs - I can't use arrays, I
>have to encrypt them as pointers; I can't use dynamic memory, I have
>to encrypt them as pointers; I can't use mapping (run-time equivalence),
> [...]
>
Excuse me? are you REALLY saying you CAN'T use arrays in C without
resorting to pointers??? I'm confused. Does this mean that I can't 
use the statement
  a[i][j] = 123;
in a C program. If thats so, you'd better tell my C compilers that
(SunOS 4.1 C compiler, Turbo C, Turbo C++...all using ANSI standard
 mode)
Can't use dynamic memory without using pointers? Again, I assume that's
not *really* what you mean...I can send you code to create 2,3,...
whatever Dimensioned array you want from the heap (using malloc &
calloc) that can be used in any situation where you use a statically
declared one (I have yet to find a situation where it doesn't work)
using exactly the same syntax. It works on all the compilers mentioned
above using the ANSI standard mode. I use this routine regularly in
the image processing work I do...the only problem I've run into is
running out of memory for 2-D arrays larger than 1024x1024 of type
float.

Obviously I have misinterpreted what you are saying, perhaps you could
clarify?


John Burton