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From: lindato@tektronix.UUCP (Linda Todd)
Newsgroups: net.lang.c
Subject: great quote about the "C" language
Message-ID: <1633@tektronix.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 2-Dec-83 03:19:47 EST
Article-I.D.: tektroni.1633
Posted: Fri Dec  2 03:19:47 1983
Date-Received: Sun, 4-Dec-83 06:41:06 EST
Organization: Tektronix, Beaverton OR
Lines: 20

In the 1981 US Dept of Commerce NTIS report #4634, 
A. Evans of BBN has some great quotes:

   I get the impression that C's designers 
   were charged $1000 for every reserved word 
   in the language and $2000 for every concept,
   that C programmers are charged $5 for 
   every character in the program,
   and that minimizing this cost was a 
   major design goal.

   ...

   With short int, int, and long int, the 
   C programmer can specify enough information 
   so that the compiler will probably get it right. 
   The governing word here is "probably", 
   an idea which seems to pervade much of C's design.
   To my way of thinking, "probably" isn't good enough,
   and I feel quite unconfortable about this aspect of C.