Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcsun!cernvax!chx400!unizh!gorgo!schaerer
From: schaerer@gorgo.ifi.unizh.ch
Newsgroups: comp.lang.eiffel
Subject: Re: Assertions and deferred routines
Message-ID: <1990Oct22.181347.6410@gorgo.ifi.unizh.ch>
Date: 22 Oct 90 18:13:47 GMT
References: <443@kepler1.kepler.com> <420@eiffel.UUCP>
Reply-To: Daniel Schaerer <schaerer@ifi.unizh.ch>
Organization: University of Zurich, Department of Computer Science
Lines: 16

[Bertrand Meyer announces that Eiffel 3.0 will offer the syntax "require
 else ..." and "ensure then ..." for pre/postconditions in redeclarations]

I have a cosmetic problem with the proposed syntax. Although you give a
logically consistent explanation for it, I think it is not very readable
for humans, a very important aspect in language design in my opinion.
I'd rather like to see something verbose like

     alternatively require ``additional precondition''

     additionally ensure ``additional postcondition''
 
Did you ever consider any proposal along these lines?
---
Daniel Schaerer, University of Zurich/Switzerland
schaerer@ifi.unizh.ch