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From: brnstnd@kramden.acf.nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: Dynamic typing (part 3)
Message-ID: <18401:Mar2013:52:2291@kramden.acf.nyu.edu>
Date: 20 Mar 91 13:52:22 GMT
References: <602@optima.cs.arizona.edu> <2400035@otter.hpl.hp.com>
Organization: IR
Lines: 38

In article <2400035@otter.hpl.hp.com> sfk@otter.hpl.hp.com (Steve Knight) writes:
> This program read a file of syllables and printed out "passwords" composed
> from three random syllables.

sed 's/$/XXXXXXXXXX/' | travesty -s -o10 | ... Sorry, couldn't resist.

>     define program();             ;;; build a list of syllables
>         lvars syllables = 'syllables'.discin.incharline.pdtolist;
>         repeat 3 times
>             syllables.oneof.pr    ;;; print a syllable 3 times
>         endrepeat;
>         nl( 1 );                  ;;; throw 1 new line
>     enddefine;

Fine, this is sort of example I was looking for. I claim that the
conciseness of this program comes from the libraries available, not from
the dynamic typing.

#include <stdio.h>
#include "sop.h"
#include "strinf.h"
main() {
SOP(strinf) *syl; strinf *s; int i; syl = SOPempty(strinf);
while (s = strinfgets(stdin)) { strinfchop(s); SOPadd(syl,s,strinf); }
for (i = 0;i < 3;++i) puts(strinftos(SOPrandpick(syl,strinf)));
putchar('\n');
}

(Yes, I admit I stole the name and concept of strinfchop from Perl.)
Here strinf is a library for handling arbitrary-length strings, and sop
is a generic set-of-pointers library.

Surely you agree that, syntax aside, the C and Pop11 versions work the
same way to accomplish the same results. The difference? I get better
type checking and almost certainly better efficiency. For longer
programs this means better turnaround time.

---Dan