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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!mcvax!boring!jack
From: jack@boring.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.lang.mod2
Subject: Re: Aren't people fed up with semicolons yet?
Message-ID: <6382@boring.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 12-Apr-85 14:13:38 EST
Article-I.D.: boring.6382
Posted: Fri Apr 12 14:13:38 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 15-Apr-85 02:52:28 EST
References: <4003@mit-eddie.UUCP>
Reply-To: jack@boring.UUCP (Jack Jansen)
Organization: CWI, Amsterdam
Lines: 20
Apparently-To: rnews@mcvax.LOCAL



I have written some fairly large programs in BCPL (one of
the very remote predecessors to C), which has the feature that
a semicolon before end of line can usually be ommitted.
When you first look at it, it seems like a great idea.
But..... I never used it. Being used to pascal and C typing
a semicolon before eoln goes automatic (at least, to me).
When I looked at my programs lateron, I noticed that the first
few didn't have semicolons, but that I started adding them
again as soon as I didn't think of it.

Also, as another argument: semicolons provide a bit of
redundency, and redundancy is always nice, since it helps
you detect errors at compile time, in stead of at runtime.
If a feature decreases my typing-time by 10% and increaes
debugging time by 10%, I don't want the feature.

-- 
	Jack Jansen, {decvax|philabs|seismo}!mcvax!jack
	The shell is my oyster.