Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!ima!haddock!karl
From: karl@haddock.ima.isc.com (Karl Heuer)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: a style question
Message-ID: <18558@haddock.ima.isc.com>
Date: 18 Oct 90 01:32:21 GMT
References: <1990Oct6.231143.28186@zoo.toronto.edu> <65263@lanl.gov> <MEISSNER.90Oct12120812@osf.osf.org> <1990Oct12.225501.15701@cbnewsm.att.com>
Reply-To: karl@ima.isc.com (Karl Heuer)
Distribution: na
Organization: Interactive Systems, Cambridge, MA 02138-5302
Lines: 11

In article <1990Oct12.225501.15701@cbnewsm.att.com> lfd@cbnewsm.att.com (leland.f.derbenwick) writes:
>One of the main heritages of the PDP-11 is that most people use
>the constructs "*p++" and "*--p" more often than "*++p" and "*p--";

I disagree.  My perception is that using half-open intervals (closed on the
left) simplifies many algorithms, and the logical way to step through such an
object is with *p++ or a[i++] (forward) or *--p or a[--i] (backward).  The
antisymmetric nature of the PDP-11 addressing modes is the result, not the
cause.

Karl W. Z. Heuer (karl@ima.isc.com or uunet!ima!karl), The Walking Lint