Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!duke!crm From: crm@duke.UUCP Newsgroups: net.lang.c Subject: back-flaming Message-ID: <3561@duke.UUCP> Date: Mon, 19-Sep-83 19:52:25 EDT Article-I.D.: duke.3561 Posted: Mon Sep 19 19:52:25 1983 Date-Received: Tue, 20-Sep-83 17:50:58 EDT Lines: 22 In re: foo[6..20] -- DAMN STRAIGHT! I'D LIKE JUST THAT! The "beauty" of C lies in the fact that the C-jocks can write programs that simulate PDP-11 assembly language in an HOL. It works fine for systems programming, but it's NEVER commented well enough and it has too many holes in it where an unsophisticated user can trash the program in ways that are hard to find and hard to fix. Modula-2 works just fine for system-level stuff (having read a good part of the Lilith operating system, I can tell you that it is easy to follow and to understand) and has the advantage that it catches a lot of the little mistakes one makes at compile time, rather than cluttering the directory with "core" files. Ghod knows I like C better than Fortran for these things, but that's NOT a recommendation. The fact that a book of C puzzles CAN be written should have excluded it from serious consideration as a production language. Charlie Martin ...!duke!crm