Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!newstop!sun!exodus!prisoner.Eng.Sun.COM!zellers
From: zellers@prisoner.Eng.Sun.COM (Steve Zellers)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: THINK C Suggestions
Message-ID: <1314@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM>
Date: 11 Oct 90 22:04:44 GMT
References: <90283.224058CXT105@psuvm.psu.edu>
Sender: news@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mt. View, Ca.
Lines: 51

In article <90283.224058CXT105@psuvm.psu.edu> CXT105@psuvm.psu.edu (Christopher Tate) writes:
>Personally, I find this one of the most glaring omissions in C.  It's
>pretty icky to have to type 17 lines of "(**myHandle).whatever = something;"
>instead of a nice pretty "WITH myHandle^^ do begin....end."  And, since
>it's a bracketed construct, C has an easy time figuring out when to do
>the dereferencing.
C doesn't have this, because C requires the programmer to do most of his
optimizations... (You can't move memory from within a with mumble^^ either) 
Consider:

{ 
   (**(**onehandle).somethingotherhandle).mumblefrotz[0] = 42;
   (**(**onehandle).somethingotherhandle).mumblefrotz[1] = 18;
}

Well, if you REALLY NEED a with, then:

{
#define WITH (**(**onehandle).somethingotherhandle)
   WITH.mumblefrotz[0] = 42;	
   WITH.mumblefrotz[1] = 18;
#undef WITH
}


But you're programming in C for a reason, right?

{
   reg mumbleptr pmum = (**(**onehandle).somethingotherhandle).mumblefrotz;
   *pmum++ = 42;
   *pmum = 18;
}

This will generate better code than THINK or MPW pascal by the way.
If you like things 'automagic' and hidden from you, by all means,
keep using pascal.  It's not C's purpose.

I've seen/written a lot of pascal that used WITH's, but it really
doesn't help much, accept in the simplest cases.  (My boss used to bitch
me out for assigning temporary pointers in my pascal code - but how else
are you supposed to compare disparate elements of some heavily
dereferenced structure? You can't 'with' them both...) Ooops, I'm
raving.  Nevermind. 

>Maybe we should move this discussion to comp.lang.c, where it belongs....
They might laugh.
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Zellers 					zellers@prisoner.sun.com
"All you slimy  fruitcakes in San Fransisco are going to find out how to 
get to 180 and the letter 'G'. I repeat, there is No Other Possibility."