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From: richard@sequent.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.lang
Subject: Re: Lexical analyzers and parsers
Message-ID: <484@sequent.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 6-May-84 03:47:22 EDT
Article-I.D.: sequent.484
Posted: Sun May  6 03:47:22 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 12-May-84 07:12:48 EDT
References: <428@opus.UUCP> <903@dciem.UUCP>
Organization: Sequent Computer Systems, Portland
Lines: 21

>>> Curiously [in FORTRAN], it was decided to ignore blanks,
>>> EVEN within identifiers.

When I was tutoring CSc in college, I helped an engineering student
whose instructor had the curious notion that any and all spaces were
*illegal* in fortran.  This was in '81.  The guy hadn't programmed in
so long, maybe once he was right.  But I pity his students: his sample
programs were about 1/5 to 1/4 "goto"s.  What astonished me even more
were the flow-charts he handed out as "coding problems."  They very
clearly illustrated his lack of mental structure.  Imagine a flow-chart
with 1/5 to 1/4 "branches."  (Not a complicated program either). This
is one of the possible results when instructors aren't "encouraged"
to stay on top of their field.

___________________________________________________________________________
The preceding should not to be construed as the statement or opinion of the
employers or associates of the author.   It might not even be the author's.

I try to make a point of protecting the innocent,
	but none of them can be found...
							...!sequent!richard