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From: jaap@haring.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.bugs.4bsd
Subject: Re: pc doesn't allow an ``others'' clause in outputs
Message-ID: <351@haring.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 10-Nov-84 02:59:23 EST
Article-I.D.: haring.351
Posted: Sat Nov 10 02:59:23 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 11-Nov-84 19:58:37 EST
References: <721@umcp-cs.UUCP> <6141@mcvax.UUCP> <347@haring.UUCP> <108@cmcl2.UUCP>
Organization: CWI, Amsterdam
Lines: 21
Apparently-To: rnews@turing.LOCAL

>You can also (in 4.2bsd) simply use pxp -O instead of hacking up the pc
>compiler to accept the others clause.  That is what TeX does.

Yes, I know 4.2 BSD pascal has the -O option (I don't know why they didn't
call it -others, but it would be a better choice -:)), but that is not
the point.

Whenever I'm trying to boot a program which is supposed to be "Very
portable" among a lot of systems, so it even limits the line lengths
of the input to the compiler to the old fashioned card reader, I don't
want to now about an obscure option in a certain compiler on an obscure system.
The language used just happens to be "standard pascal", which doesn't has
the construct used.

Allowing the "default case" in pascal is not a bug fix, but a
change in the language specs to get some job to be done.


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