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From: sw@smds.UUCP (Stephen E. Witham)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: improve language by dropping ;
Summary: Englishhaswhitespaceandterminatorssee
Message-ID: <347@smds.UUCP>
Date: 1 Mar 91 16:05:54 GMT
References: <8507.27b91f9e@jetson.uh.edu> <8531@plains.NoDak.edu> <1875@borg.cs.unc.edu>
Organization: SMDS Inc., Concord, MA
Lines: 26

In article <1875@borg.cs.unc.edu>, denelsbe@hatteras.cs.unc.edu (Kevin Denelsbeck) writes:
     Semicolons, braces, and "anonymous" begin-end pairs are just a
     lot of clutter, as far as I can see.  I'm willing to bet that most 
     programmers operate with the "one-command-per-line" mindset (except for 
     a few little hacks like putting a simple if-then or loop structure on one 
     line) and that, in the long run, eliminating semicolons and other such 
     detritus makes for an easier-to-read program.  
In printed English, indentation is used (as above) for grouping, and statements
are separated by punctuation.  More than one statement can fit on a line, and
a single statement can take up multiple lines.  I kinda like it that way.
My C code does things like:
     x = 0;  y = 0;
and
     z = a + veryLongNamedFunctionOf( b + importantOffset )
           + anotherVeryLongNamedFunction( d ) 
           - theExcess;

Kev asks,
     Any other BASIC fans out there?
Yeah.  People pick on BASIC too much, especially now that it's
come out of the dark ages.  Basic is the only language in which
I can write extemporaneously, off-the-cuff, top-to-bottom, without
writer's block.

--Steve Witham sw@smds.uucp
Not-the-fault-of: SMDS, Concord, MA